My blog where I write about films I enjoy and post interviews I've done with actors and filmmakers. I am a sci-fi fan, an action film nerd, and into both arthouse films and B-movie schlock.
I saw Good Men, Good Women at the Moving Image museum ,
and really enjoyed it a lot. It's from the Taiwanese director Hou
Hsiao-hsien, who the museum is paying tribute to. I saw one of his
movies a couple of years ago, Three Times, about a love story told in three historical time periods with the same actors as different people. His movies have this
touch of humanity that I really like, where scenes are slow, are about
small details with people and their lives, and the storytelling has a
very artsy, unlinear way of being presented.
In this film, it is about
an actress who is preparing to act in a 1940s-set movie about real-life
Taiwanese revolutionaries who came to China to join in the anti-Japanese
resistance, only to suffer in China after the war due to political
activities of the 1950s. The actress is having flashbacks to her life
with her deceased boyfriend, a handsome rogue with criminal connections,
while also imagining herself acting in the film yet to be filmed.The
film-within-a-film parts are in black-and-white, while the present
day(1995) parts are in color.
The movie doesn't have a huge plot to it,
but I found it fascinating, and I really do like the kinds of artsy
movies that came out of 1990s East Asia that were experimental and hip
and played around with storytelling. I really like Wong Kar-Wai, for
example, for Fallen Angels, Chungking Express, 2046, and Happy Together. I will probably checkout more of Hou Hsiao-hsien's movies, since I like his style so much.
I enjoyed seeing The Drop, a crime drama starring James
Gandolfini, Tom Hardy, and Noomi Rapace. The basic plot of the movie
centers on Brooklyn bars that act as an underground "drop" for laundered
money in organized crime.The "drop" bar changes frequently, and is
known by word of mouth. Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini play cousins Bob
and Marv who work at a bar (Bob is a
bartender, Marv is the owner) that gets robbed, and the Chechen mob,
whose money got stolen, wants their money back. In the meantime, Bob
finds an abused pit bull puppy in garbage bin and takes care of it, with
the help of his neighbor Nadia (Rapace). The story gets more involved
as more details about the robbery come to light,as well as the puppy
being an object amongst criminal thugs.
The story was paced
well, even if it followed some cliches of the genre ("get me 5K in two
days or you're dead"), but I enjoyed it for the solid acting and gritty
working-class neighborhood. The movie was adapted from a short story by
Dennis Lehane, and I thought Gone, Baby, Gone was a great adaptation of
his book, so I was in. I do like these kind of movies, usually about a
bunch of old-school Irish or Italian guys who grew up in a working-class
part of a city, often New York, Boston, Chicago, apart of New Jersey,
or Philadelphia, who talk about knowing their streets and being close
with the local mob and avoiding snitching. I find comfort in these
movies,I just like the accents and setting. The Drop is good to see for
the actors and genre. It is a small movie, not an epic tale, just a
story out of the streets amongst old-school folks and the mob. Plus,
there is an adorable pit bull puppy in the movie who is a plot device,
but is still cute to watch.
I watched Two Lovers on a Saturday night on PBS. It ran as a double
feature with Moonstruck, and both movies are similar in that they are
about families in specific ethnic neighborhoods in Brooklyn (Moonstruck -
Sicilian in Brooklyn Heights; Two Lovers - Russian-Jewish in Brighton
Beach). It is a downbeat movie, about a guy named Leonard (Joaquin
Phoenix) who suffers from depression and suicide attempts, and lives
with his parents. They are trying to set him up for marriage with
the daughter of their friends, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), who is seemingly a
"good girl" choice for him, but he is more interested in his neighbor
Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow), who is new to the neighborhood and has
personal issues of her own regarding her drug problems and married
boyfriend.
Even though the movie is about damaged people, it doesn't
feel depressing. I liked how the movie portrayed both female leads.
Michelle has issues, but isn't a broken person, and is funny and sweet
and nice. Sandra is smart and self-assured and likable. Leonard can be
charming, and while he is socially awkward at times or talks too fast at
once, doesn't come off as a weirdo because of his issues. I liked the
setting of the movie, how it encapsulated the Brighton Beach community
of Russian-Jewish people without making anyone into caricatures or
playing them for laughs. The autumn setting was nice, and I felt at ease
watching it.
I am generally indifferent to Phoenix and Paltrow, though I
think they are decent actors, but they both are very good in this film.
And I've always liked Vinessa Shaw, even though she's not a
hugely-famous actress. I initially know of her from Ladybugs and Hocus
Pocus, but she's done well in various big movies in her career, like
Eyes Wide Shut, The Hills Have Eyes remake, Puncture, and 3:10 to Yuma.
She comes off as smart and strong in her roles, playing parts with
quietness and realism, being more of a character actress than when she
was the "hot girl" as a teen. It's just nice to see her continue to be
successful in a modest way.
Gone Girl is an excellent mystery thriller. I cheated and read the plot
summary before I saw the movie, but still enjoyed it a lot. It was dark
and interesting, and I really liked how the movie looked at the inside
of a marriage and how two charismatic, bright, lovely people can become
strangers to one another. Both characters are sympathetic but are awful
people. I have been a fan of Rosamund Pike since An Education, because
of her versatile talent in a variety of roles (funny
best friend, cop, assertive friend/female lead), and how different she
can look in each role, I often only vaguely recognize her. I am happy to
see her be the lead in a big Hollywood movie and play a fascinating
character as Amy. I also really liked Carrie Coon as Nick's sister
Margo, Kim Dickens as the detective on the case, and Tyler Perry as
Nick's lawyer. Ben Affleck was good as Nick, but I was more impressed by
the actresses. And this continues my latest movie-watching trend of
crime thrillers (A Walk Among the Tombstones, Reindeer Games, The
Equalizer, The Killer Inside Me, The Drop). I'm just into watching
mystery thrillers lately, they fascinate me.
In my continued interest in crime thrillers, I watched Killing Them
Softly on Netflix. It was directed by Andrew Dominik, who has
a great track record with directing Chopper and The Assassination of
Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It is a movie about losers in
organized crime, basically. Two burnout guys decide to rob a poker game
that is run and played by mobsters. They pull it off, but their actions
bring upon hit men that are hired to kill them, to "kill them
softly."
What is interesting about this movie is that it strips away
the glamour of movies about organized crime, and just shows a lot of
losers living on the outskirts of society, with no real job skills, and
just being thugs for hire. They have meaningless jobs and existences,
they have no real friends or family, and their lives are empty. It
reminded me a little bit of Donnie Brasco, with the character of
Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero (played by Al Pacino), as a low-level mob hit
man whose personal life is a mess and has nothing worthwhile in his life
after 30 years as a wiseguy killing people for hire. I saw that in the
character of Mickey Fallon, played by James Gandolfini. He was a hitman
who used to be quick and well-respected, but now is a loser with an
addiction to alcohol and hookers, his ex-wife left him because of his
repeated prison sentences, and he is a babbling dumbass.
The acting was
pretty good, from Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendolsohn as the burnout leads,
to Ray Liotta as a dirtbag that runs the poker ring, to Gandolfini's
wonderful performance as a delusional drunk in his few scenes. But Brad
Pitt was a total scene-stealer as a hit man, and not because of his
movie-star self. He really excels in being in dark movies and playing
characters that have a gallows sense of humor or handle being amidst the
unpleasant side of society. Sleepers, Se7en, Kalifornia, 12 Monkeys,
Fight Club, and Spy Game all showcase that. I really like him in those
roles, he seems to sit well in them and be in place. This isn't a great
movie, but it's pretty decent to watch for an evening.
I saw Kill the Messenger. It was good, but very bleak, about
politics and journalism and what happens when a journalist gets smeared
in the media by the C.I.A. when he uncovers uncomfortable confidential
information about them. In this case, it is uncovering of the C.I.A.
financially backing drug smugglers from Nicaragua in order to fund
weapons for their side of the country's civil war in the 1980s.
Renner (who has been twice-nominated for an Academy Award and really should
get one someday) stars as Gary Webb, a real-life journalist who
uncovered this story in 1996, and the C.I.A. discredited him, previous
leads changed their stories, and the media made him look like a fraud.
The movie portrayed Webb fairly, showing him as both a loving family man
and a self-righteous investigative reporter. I found the story
fascinating, and while some big-name stars in the trailer only made
cameos (Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta), I still thought it had a good and
strong cast, a lot of character actors and older familiar faces. I
really like Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who played Webb's editor. I've seen
her in a lot of movies, and I like how she disappears into each role
she's in. She is an underrated versatile talent. My aunt Beth played her
mom in Faults, a movie about a young woman in a cult, and just raved
about her.
I also really
liked the director Michael Cuesta's previous movies, L.I.E. and Roadie,
this is probably his biggest movie yet. He has a talent for small dramas
about regular people, set on Long Island or Queens, and I was happy to
see his name on this picture. I enjoyed the movie, though I wouldn't
call it great. I just think it is very good, full of talented actors and
an interesting story.
No Looking Back is a 1998 drama about ordinary people in a
small seaside town. It was written and directed by Edward Burns, and starred
him, Lauren Holly, and Jon Bon Jovi. The story is about a waitress named
Claudia (Holly) who has lived in her small town all her life, and is dreading
her 30th birthday. She feels trapped, often looking bored while
maintaining a polite façade. She’s been with her trusty and supportive
boyfriend Michael (Bon Jovi) for three years, but cannot commit to an engagement.
In comes her ex-boyfriend Charlie (Burns), who Claudia dated when they were
teenagers, visiting home and intent on seducing her away from the small town
with romantic dreams of escape. It’s a tough situation for her, to choose
whether to have safety and security with Michael or romance and adventure with
Charlie.
The film doesn’t seem like much at first, because it’s about
blue-collar people in a small and boring town, but there’s something touching
and emotional about it. The film captures moments of the town seeming like a
dead-end. People at the bar gossip about each other’s business, Michael’s car
is crap but he can’t afford to get a new one or even a good mechanic job,
Claudia’s mom is housebound after her husband left her, Claudia’s sister is a
struggling single mother, and Claudia goes through life with a look of bored
resignation on her face. Even when Charlie comes in, he just gets a job pumping
gas twice a week, briefly goes out with a teenage girl, and stalks his
ex-girlfriend. Even if he brags about getting out, the small town is still in
him, and he runs right back into his problems.
The movie has a fitting soundtrack. Sheryl Crow’s “Home”
sets the opening mood for the movie, interpreted as a mixed love letter to a
town that isn’t the best, but is still home. Bruce Springsteen’s working-class
blues plays during a few scenes, and alt-rock bands of the day Sponge and Local
H play during a bar scene.
Charlie is a dirtbag, plain and simple. He is trying to
steal away Claudia, he antagonizes Michael, and it’s obvious that he only came
back because he hasn’t done anything with his life, and Claudia represents
something good and pure, like a love he can return to.
One of the surprise standouts in the cast is Jon Bon Jovi.
Michael is truly a decent guy, honest and hardworking. There’s no false
pretenses with him. He wants simple things in life: a good job, a good family,
good friends, and a good car. Jon Bon Jovi really plays him with conviction and
realism, and makes him a sympathetic characters.
Lauren Holly did well portraying Claudia. Claudia is
sympathetic, but not very likable. She resigns herself to a boring life, but
doesn’t look for better options or try to do more constructive things beyond
working and tolerating her own existence because it’s safe. Charlie is clearly
a bad choice for her. Claudia’s sister relays a phrase said by their father:
“No matter how hard you try, you can’t shine shit.” Charlie is a romantic ideal
for her, but would definitely leave her when things got hard, like when they
were teenagers.
The greatly film underperformed when it came out, making $250,000 on a $5 million budget. Burns said that his friends joked around, calling the movie "Nobody Saw It," and Burns didn't make anything for two years. The film is now available on Netflix streaming, and is definitely worth watching for an intimate character drama.
