1.19.2004
late night movies
i can't sleep. so i guess i'll post a bit about the movies i watched this weekend:
* wild zero was first on the list. this is a japanese zombie movie starring the garage band guitar wolf. sort of a mixture of the wackier moments of dawn of the dead (think tom savini, armed with pie and seltzer) and rock and roll high school, with an ample dose of the video for "thriller." as a horror movie, it's pretty standard fare beyond the rock-band-as-superheroes gimmick. but it's a loveable gimmick. and it's a pretty fun movie. reminded me a bit of the recent spiderman movie, in its ability to be totally corny and totally aware of itself simultaneously, and to be sort of indifferent to that very awareness. both are films about the joys of being dumb. and both are, eh, joyful...
* second-- and totally different-- was amores perros, which was disappointing. not bad, per se, but nothing too memorable. it's a shame, cause the acting is really good for the most part and the first 45 minutes or so are pretty well orchestrated. but it drags on and on, making a bit of a mess out of its subplots. it's one of those overlapping-story type movies that are so popular lately. think magnolia, only not nearly as miserable.
my biggest problem with the film is a more general one, which is that it seems intently aimed at hollywood. this is one of my biggest gripes with stuff that gets released as "independent" lately-- this sense that a young director plays intramurals with an art flick before heading to the big leagues. amores perros is slick and funky, but in a decidedly conformist manner... cool-guy-grey lighting and hand held camera work (a la NYPD blue)... "gritty," violent storytelling with occasional soapy pleas to the heart... sweeping orchestration that ends up a little drunk on its own hyperboles (a la donnie darko). all familiar, and all potentially headed down the same boring lane as steven soderberg or gus van sant (although i must note that i haven't seen either gerry or elephant, which are both rumored to contradict my argument... let's hope they do). i wish there were more films being released with a fundamental indifference to this kind of lukewarm, hollywood hipster shit. but i guess when cold mountain and mystic river are playing in the art houses (???), there aint much room for that. looks like anything that doesn't involve vin diesel escaping intergalactic terrorists atop a pegasus fleeing an avalanche consitutes an "art" movie lately...
(deep breath)
* on a brighter note, the best of the bunch was rififi, jules dassin's 1954 crime caper, made in a kind of exile in france following the notorious mc carthy-ear hollywood blacklist. totally fun, and proof that planning and calculations are underrated devices in movie-making. the near thirty minutes of silence as our heroes rob a jewelry store is every bit as enjoyable as i'd hoped it would be. you get a sense that the director and co. had a lot of fun constructing it too, and the interview with dassin included in the dvd gets into how it came about a little. there's also a weird exploitation element to the film, where more or less each female character breaks some sexy (sexist) taboo of one sort or another. the s&m between the main character and his ex is as inexplicable as it is a bummer, but the nippy tart that runs with one of the sidekicks is silly enough fun. granted, it's all pretty misogynistic, but there's something interesting about watching taboos that aren't really taboo any more in a film that seems to assume its audience will be shocked. just a little sign of the times, i guess. but don't rent it for that. rent it because it's top notch film noir. hot shit.
* wild zero was first on the list. this is a japanese zombie movie starring the garage band guitar wolf. sort of a mixture of the wackier moments of dawn of the dead (think tom savini, armed with pie and seltzer) and rock and roll high school, with an ample dose of the video for "thriller." as a horror movie, it's pretty standard fare beyond the rock-band-as-superheroes gimmick. but it's a loveable gimmick. and it's a pretty fun movie. reminded me a bit of the recent spiderman movie, in its ability to be totally corny and totally aware of itself simultaneously, and to be sort of indifferent to that very awareness. both are films about the joys of being dumb. and both are, eh, joyful...
* second-- and totally different-- was amores perros, which was disappointing. not bad, per se, but nothing too memorable. it's a shame, cause the acting is really good for the most part and the first 45 minutes or so are pretty well orchestrated. but it drags on and on, making a bit of a mess out of its subplots. it's one of those overlapping-story type movies that are so popular lately. think magnolia, only not nearly as miserable.
my biggest problem with the film is a more general one, which is that it seems intently aimed at hollywood. this is one of my biggest gripes with stuff that gets released as "independent" lately-- this sense that a young director plays intramurals with an art flick before heading to the big leagues. amores perros is slick and funky, but in a decidedly conformist manner... cool-guy-grey lighting and hand held camera work (a la NYPD blue)... "gritty," violent storytelling with occasional soapy pleas to the heart... sweeping orchestration that ends up a little drunk on its own hyperboles (a la donnie darko). all familiar, and all potentially headed down the same boring lane as steven soderberg or gus van sant (although i must note that i haven't seen either gerry or elephant, which are both rumored to contradict my argument... let's hope they do). i wish there were more films being released with a fundamental indifference to this kind of lukewarm, hollywood hipster shit. but i guess when cold mountain and mystic river are playing in the art houses (???), there aint much room for that. looks like anything that doesn't involve vin diesel escaping intergalactic terrorists atop a pegasus fleeing an avalanche consitutes an "art" movie lately...
(deep breath)
* on a brighter note, the best of the bunch was rififi, jules dassin's 1954 crime caper, made in a kind of exile in france following the notorious mc carthy-ear hollywood blacklist. totally fun, and proof that planning and calculations are underrated devices in movie-making. the near thirty minutes of silence as our heroes rob a jewelry store is every bit as enjoyable as i'd hoped it would be. you get a sense that the director and co. had a lot of fun constructing it too, and the interview with dassin included in the dvd gets into how it came about a little. there's also a weird exploitation element to the film, where more or less each female character breaks some sexy (sexist) taboo of one sort or another. the s&m between the main character and his ex is as inexplicable as it is a bummer, but the nippy tart that runs with one of the sidekicks is silly enough fun. granted, it's all pretty misogynistic, but there's something interesting about watching taboos that aren't really taboo any more in a film that seems to assume its audience will be shocked. just a little sign of the times, i guess. but don't rent it for that. rent it because it's top notch film noir. hot shit.
