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| Wednesday, December 9, 2009 |
| Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist [2008] |
 directed by Peter Solette (2008)
A Hollywood teen romantic comedy usually would find it hard to carve a place in this blog, but Nick and Norah aren't your average MTV teenagers who scream on 'Twilight'. Their playlist comprises of lots of Indie alternative bands and they don't get drunk on prom night and jump to bed. In this adventure, they are aboard one night in Nick's gay bandmate's van as they search the New York city for Norah's lost friend while contemplating a chance to meet "Where's Fluffy?", their favorite alt-rock band.
The story isn't anything unusual. Nick and Norah goes through unusual and often hilarious experiences during the course of their search while falling for each other. What makes their story different is the use of intelligent sarcasm in the dialogue and rather credible performances by the lead actors. Michael Cera of 'Juno' fame plays Nick with nice conviction. His soft-spoken bassist character is still reeling from a break-up and simultaneously he falls for Norah, played in equally excellent fashion by Kat Dennings, a hit casting choice for her sarcastic no-nonsense yet rather introvert character. The writing is much better than expected in a film with such settings, with controlled use of mainstream humor, good pop culture references and overall intelligent but realistic dialogue. There are some hints of forced racial and sexual neutrality in creating the characters, but the writing tried its best to avoid the cultural stereotyping of those characters, which works well. Of course, there are some poorly-written cliched lines, but here you only appreciate the actors because the way they speak those lines make them feel like real conversations.
 Tom Richmond's cinematography is a hit. Shot almost entirely in the night, with the ever-astonishing backdrop of New York city during fall, the film absolutely gives a sense of warmth right from the beginning. The beautiful alternative rock soundtrack absolutely captures the mood of the film. Featuring indie bands like Bishop Allen (who make a cameo in the film), The Submarines or Vampire Weekend, the songs play on and sometimes attribute different meanings to the dialogue featured in the film. The film makes the viewer go to NYC, see small indie bands in small clubs, makes one want to be that teenager again who can totally trust his secrets to a complete stranger if they like the same band. Since the whole film is basically about a playlist, all I can say that I shall play it over and over again, happily turning the shuffle on. |
posted by Noisy Autist @ 7:36 AM  |
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| Friday, November 13, 2009 |
| Toby Dammit [1968] |
directed by Federico Fellini (Italy, 1968)
Loosely based on a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, this absurd surreal 40-minute short by Fellini is now widely considered one of his most underrated ones. Bordering around the horror/thriller genre with copious surrealism only Fellini can pull off, this film stars the wonderful Terrence Stamp as the alcoholic down-and-out English film actor Toby Dammit who travels to Rome to star in an Italian catholic-themed action film. What follows is a series of bizarre inexplicable events, often horrifying... or is everything just his madness?
Fellini uses shaky and frenzied camerawork, often with fast zooming and out-of-focus shots, red filtered outdoor shots and intentional sloppy editing to attenuate the film's desperation to tell a story that could easily lose its direction. But when the story stops making sense after the initial few minutes, the film itself starts to get better, making the viewer embracing its absurdity and non-existantialism rather than hating it. The dialogues are incoherent, the acting is mostly overdone. But that actually helped the film getting even surreal. The brilliant original score is perhaps one the best in a Fellini film, creating a strange eerie atmosphere right from the beginning.
A major change from the story occurs in designing the devil. Instead of portraying the Devil as a sinister old man in a black suit or a vile beast with a horn and a tail, Fellini shows the Devil, a little blonde girl in a white dress, playing with a beach ball in an escalator. And that's the only thing that made sense in this film. What would Devil look like to an alcoholic egotistic suicidal maniac? Certainly not a red beast with horns. |
| posted by Noisy Autist @ 11:31 AM |
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| Saturday, October 31, 2009 |
| The Last Picture Show [1971] |
written and directed by Peter Bogdanovich (1971)
Just how much desperation does it take to break free from morality and head towards self-destruction? Renowned film historian and part-time director Peter Bogdanovich's first major feature takes us back in 1953, to the quiet yet dishevelled, depressed small Texas town of Anarene, situated in the middle of a desert, where the most entertainment you can get is in a half-broken movie theatre that shows old John Wayne westerns on Saturdays. Bogdanovich uses black-and-white cinematography, sloppy editing, mono sound mix and 1940s' country soundtrack to successfully capture the spirit of early 50s. His characters are troubled, dark and gloomy... yet they curve their own necessary niche in the community. Bored to death in a town where there's nothing else to do but drink and play pool and watch high-school football, the characters dive into the desperation of adultery and promiscuity... just for kicks.
There are Sonny and Duane, late teens and best friends. Sonny (played by a wonderful Tim Bottoms), whose estranged and drunk father greets him with "How've you been? Good? See ya." has a perpetual crush on Duane's girlfriend JC. But he can't risk his friendship and go for her. So he dives into a sexual relationship with his football coach's old wife. He has a mentor in Sam (Ben Johnson in an Oscar-winning role), an old down-and-out bar owner and often the sole voice of reason among the dishevelled townsfolk, who lives alone with his autistic son Billy. Duane on the other hand (played by Jeff Bridges in his debut role), initially happy being with the town's most beautiful girl JC, slowly understands that she's only using him as there's no one else. Not yet.
There's JC (played by Cybill Shepherd), obsessed with make-up, watches her mother sleeping around but still staying married to her wealthy father. This puts her in a perspective and she decides to dump Duane and go for the town's richest kid. Duane finds it hard to get over her and moves to Mexico. JC gets rejected and seduces Sonny, who finds it easier to go for her now that Duane's gone. But Duane comes back and a fight ensues. And nothing stays the same for the town after that.
The dialogues are extremely carefully written and successfully speak of the pessimism and desperation of the townspeople. They are a small town, almost like a brotherhood (as one character points out - "No one sneezes in this twon without someone offering him a handkerchief"), yet they are selfish in their own ways in order to survive. There's nothing like a background music in this film, to enhance the void. You hear music only if someone turns on the car radio or puts on a record... and the music successfully relates to the person who puts it on. Every time Sonny turns on his truck radio you hear Hank Williams mourning a lost love... while JC always puts on mainstream light pop records. It is a wonderful feat by the director to make the viewer completely immersed into his little depressed world where nothing happens, yet you know something bad is going to.
Then there's Billy. Everyday he takes the broom and stand on the road to clean the dust off the street, in a town where there's a sandstorm in every two hours. Doesn't he represent the town spirit? Anarene's going to be swept away, someday soon, while its existing townsfolk still trying to survive and find happiness, in every desperate way they can. |
| posted by Noisy Autist @ 8:18 AM |
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| Saturday, August 29, 2009 |
| Let the Right One In [2008] |
Directed by Tomas Alfredson (2008 - Sweden)
Boy (Oskar) meets girl (Eli). He asks her if they can go 'steady'. Oskar is a meek 12-year old kid who gets frequently bullied at school. Eli is strong and brave, though she smells a little, can't enter someone's home unless invited, can't stand the daylight. She's also 12, it's just that she's been 12 for last 200 years.
Well, that, in nutshell, is the premise for this wonderfully atmospheric and moody cinematic adaptation of John Lindqvist's famous horror novel. Shot primarily in a fixed static camera, with few cuts, in a deserted small town in cold icy winter, and aided with sparse background music, the film creates an atmosphere of loneliness and a certain gloominess right from the beginning. The story is set in the early 80s, but that is not made very evident in this film. The director aims to make it a human relationship drama, and therefore it contains a number of strong and intelligent dialogues. His manner of showing violence and gore is unique in the sense that he never lets them take the upper hand in this film's principal mood. So despite of scenes containing gruesome and shocking revelations including one of the most intelligently shot violent climax, the film remains a love story in the end.
The two child actors that play the lead characters deserve worldwide recognition. Lina Leandersson, who plays Eli, talks little and gives few facial expressions, but that underportrayal is just so perfect for that particular role. It's quite surprising to see her not flinching even once in her mostly violent scenes. The camera and the script only compliment the actors, make them comfortable and hide their weaknesses.
One cannot suppress the urge to compare this film with the Hollywood film "Twilight" released recently. Both of them deal with a similar premise, humans falling in love with creatures of the night. Both are targeted to young audiences. But while "Twilight" turned out to be a self-indulgent and exhibitionist big-budget piece of complete mess with hugely incompetent acting and incoherent story arc, this Swedish sleeper is almost a subtle yet shocking work of art. Rarely these days a film gives me a sense of a completely new experience, and "Let the Right One In" has been able to do that. It all depends on the style in the end. |
| posted by Noisy Autist @ 12:16 AM |
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| Sunday, August 16, 2009 |
| Public Enemies [2009] |
Directed by Michael Mann (2009)
Stylish crime thrillers involving gangsters isn't anything new for Mr. Mann. He's considered to be one of the most skillful Hollywood directors to deal with that particular genre. Here we got him dealing with the story of John Dillinger, the notorious depression era bank robber and con artist. He's got a wonderful script by Ronan Bennett to work with, he's got Dante Spinotti's dynamic cinematography to add to the film's visual style and he's got the most skilled actors in our time to play the lead roles -- Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Marion Cotillard. He's even got veteran lesser known stars like Leelee Sobieski, Stephen Dorff, Billy Crudup, Emilie de Ravin and Giovanni Ribisi to play his minor characters. The question, now, is whether he was successful to combine all these wonderful ingredients to make a truely wonderful film.
The answer is no. 'Public Enemies' is a good film, no doubt about that. But it somehow falls short of greatness that Mann achieved with his other thrillers like 'Collateral' or 'Heat'. With a very linear flow of mostly predictable story, the film becomes a good watch inside the theatre, but a forgettable just-another-film outside it. It doesn't deliver a surprise, even its style is very very predictable. Mann uses a typical Hollywood formula to make this film... with the usual and predictable amounts of guns, chases, romance and perky one-liners. Nothing original and unforgettable.
The cast, however, was a real treat. There's no point in discussing how great Mr. Depp was as Dillinger, because that will be an unavoidable repetition. Mr. Bale has been playing the same character in all of his movies lately -- be it Bruce Wayne, John Connor or Agent Purvas here. But it should also be said that he's playing that character with beautiful conviction and skill. I didn't see the point of casting a French actress (Oscar winner Marion Cotillard) in the role of a 1930s middle class American woman. If the reason was her acting capability, let me tell you, she was grossly underused in the film, except for the interrogation scene perhaps. As for her acting, she didn't master the accent, but whatever else she did in the limited opportunity was wonderful. The very limited role of another notorious criminal Baby Face Nelson was played by the unknown actor Stephen Graham, skillfully enough to earn his mention in this review.
To draw a conclusion, it was Johnny Depp who carries the film and keeps the viewers interested. His performance was passionate, heartfelt and absolutely convincing... prompting us to ask once again - is there any character he can't play?
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| posted by Noisy Autist @ 9:14 PM |
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| Wednesday, July 1, 2009 |
| Match Point [2005] |
Written and directed by Woody Allen (2005)
Widely described as a celebration of the importance of luck over virtue, Mr. Allen's second film set in London is quite hard to classify as a particular genre film. The extremely snappy humor, the neurotic intelligent dialogue, the satirical social commentary or all the things we love about his popular films, are hugely absent. Yes, there is humor, but in a very dark unpleasant manner. There's social commentary, but with stark realism. There are plenty of intelligent lines; but they don't display New York neurosis, they're more like British cynicism.
Nola: Men think I'd be something very special.
Chris: And are you?
Nola: Well, no one's ever asked for their money back.
The film is so edging towards the fascinating mix of serious thriller and dark comedy, that Mr. Allen also excused himself from playing his usual neurotic character of his films in this one. Also, in most of his films the location plays a major role in the plot and setting the film's mood. Even in Scoop, his first film in London (and also his first with Scarlett Johansson), there are detailed outdoor shots and typical British settings. But in Match Point, the story rises beyond any particular geographical or cultural scenario.
The story, with its fine touches on nihilism and a certain mock-pessimism, is fascinating enough to keep the viewer glued to his seat till the end. The extremely dramatic last twenty minutes of the film clearly show Mr. Allen coming out of his usual and comfortable niché when it comes to designing a plot. The dialogue is one of the best written and makes the characters very real and easy to relate to.
Once again, Scarlet Johansson does an extremely good job as the struggling American stage actress Nola Rice, who describes herself - "I'm sexy, yes. But not beautiful." She's got a number of extremely good one-liners for her. She looks the character, speaks like her and acts like her too, all in her near-perfection. In Scoop, she had shown that she can also be a competent comedy actress. Here she returns to her usual self and does a very good job at it.
   Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, with his attractive British accent, plays the central character Chris Wilton, a former tennis player who admits that "The man who said 'I'd rather be lucky than good' saw deeply into life". He gives us a believable performance as a person torn between two women -- the extreme sex appeal of one he cannot resist while the other has a rich father who offers him a job in his company. Although I'd like very much to say that Rhys-Meyers underplays the character, with his face giving a strange blank expression most of the times, but I don't know... maybe that's the best expression a man can manage when he can't choose between forbidden passion and rational stability.
The supporting cast includes the usually perfect Brian Cox and Emily Mortimer, but Allen has a strange preference for mid-shots in this film. His few close shots only feature Johansson and Rhys-Meyers. So it is somehow difficult to comment on the supporting cast's performance except for the fact that they seemed perfectly fitting into the story progress.
One last thing must be mentioned and that is the film's music. The movie's whole soundtrack is entirely comprised of Classic opera ... most of which are 1910 old scratchy recordings by Italian tenor Enrico Caruso, without any digital remastering or improvement of recording quality. This successfully brings about a very eerie vintage film experience. And it fits so perfectly into the mood that you'd almost never miss Allen's general usage of his trademark San Francisco jazz.
A masterpiece. |
| posted by Noisy Autist @ 2:41 AM |
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| Friday, June 26, 2009 |
| X-Men Origins: Wolverine [2009] |
X-Men Origins: Wolverine tells the story concerning the background of the Marvel comics character James Logan and how he became Wolverine.
Now that part was simple enough. But the producers had few other things to keep in mind obviously. Now that the star powers of many of the actors from the original X-Men movies have increased, so have their salaries and at present it is practically quite tough to include Hugh Jackman, oscar winners Halle Berry and Anna Paquin (the latter of whom recently is enjoying a resurgence in her fanbase due to True Blood) and oscar-nominated Ellen Page in one single film. So it seems only logical to tell a strictly-Logan story featuring only teenage versions of other famous mutants. Although one must admit that this film does feature a few other cool characters.
You know how these summer blockbusters go. Simple plotlines with usual subplot clichés like betrayal, love, brotherhood etc, mostly stupid dialogues with a few solitary instances of clever smartass quotes, ample amounts of mostly excellent CGI action effects and in all, great production value. Origins had all of these. But there's one more thing that really works for the film. That's the very efficient cast.
Hugh Jackman have come a long way in the path of Hollywood stardom after he was cast as Wolverine in the original X-Men film in 2000. Now he is quite a mature actor who can pull off any stupid script you throw at him. His portrayal of the character has grown increasingly convincing in each film. Here he is at his best. And he gets full support from Liev Schreiber who plays Sabretooth, his brother. Schrieber is always known as a versatile character actor who has done some memorable characters in quite a number of films. But he gives us here a pleasant surprise as the extremely convincing action anti-hero. New Hollywood hunk Ryan Reynolds, Lost star Dominic Monaghan and rapper will.i.am add to the star value by playing some important supporting characters in the film.
This paragraph is mostly for Marvel geeks. There are some discrepancies in Wolverine's comic book origin stories and what's described in the film. Some differences had to be there as comics and film are two very different media. But I didn't like the fact that the film entirely misses the story of Itsu whom he shortly marries after Silverfox's apparent death. It could have been a better plot tension. Also in the comic book, Deadpool was never supposed to be Weapon XI. It seemed to me as a poor choice made by the producers. They could have used Deadpool in a more significant role in some later film in the franchise.
But, to summerise, X-Men Wolverine is nothing more than it's supposed to be. The essential summer action fun where you shouldn't put too much of your mind into. |
| posted by Noisy Autist @ 7:25 AM |
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