Devouring Films: Movie Mini-Reviews

In lieu of reading, and because I suspect I'm not going to have much time to watch ANYTHING EVER over the next year*, I've been watching quite a few films of late. These are the ones that were both 1) new to me, and 2) I didn't fall asleep watching (a rare feat, these days). Why the mini-reviews? You know, lazy...

Don Jon

Ok, first of all I lied, because I actually did fall asleep watching Don Jon and had to watch the end half the morning after. This is neither here nor there, but that's what happened. SO. I've wanted to see this pretty much since I first heard about it, because there can't be a film written and directed by JGL that I haven't seen. That just isn't a thing that can happen. FORTUNATELY for us all, this turned out to be amazing, and I shall try to describe why.

So, Jon is kind of a dick. All he has in his life is the gym, and work, and church, and having sex with a beautiful woman night after night after... Ok, I know that doesn't sound so bad. Jon is ALSO addicted to porn, to the extent that he enjoys it more than sex with actual women, and this is really just a symbol for the emptiness of his life and his SOUL. He meets and 'falls in love' (spoiler: it's not really love) with Scarlett Johansson, which starts to make him a better man, but there's still something missing, and we're always aware of that as the audience in a way that Jon isn't.

Basically. I love how porn addiction is treated as a symptom of a wider issue of caring about how things look rather than how they feel, I love how this film could have been so gross in the wrong hands but is actually done SO well and sensitively and everything else, and I love the part that Julianne Moore has to play that I will tell you literally no more about because I didn't even know she was in the film but I'm so glad she was. Basically, as I write this, I watched this film a week ago, and I already want to watch it again. Ringing endorsement? Ringing endorsement.

Dead Poets Society

Almost as soon as Robin Williams died, people started talking about Dead Poets Society and how excellent it is, and people I know were really surprised that I hadn't seen it already. I know what they mean now- everything about it is something I enjoy in a film (except that there are bagpipes in the beginning. I HATE BAGPIPES) but I have a legitimate reason for not having seen it until now. SO you know how there's that episode of Friends where that woman steals Monica's credit card, and Monica's all like 'why do you live like this?' and the woman says 'Did you ever see Dead Poets Society? I came out of that movie and thought "well, that's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back." And that thought scared me.' THAT one thing made me think that DPS was going to be really boring. Because I'm a stupid person. Look, I didn't say it was a GOOD reason...

Anyway! I finally did watch it- I had to wait ages for the DVD because it's apparently unavailable to watch online ANYWHERE and the DVD is like golddust, but I have now seen it, and oh how I wept! I just... There are so many things I loved about it that I don't even know where to start, but maybe I should start by saying that I actually don't think it's a perfect film, and there are weird pacing issues and sometimes they don't seem to know which characters to focus on the most BUT BUT BUT there are moments that I think ARE completely perfect and it kind of cancels out any other inconsistencies there might be in the film.

REALLY I just want to talk about the end of this movie (not the standing on desks. Which is AMAZING. But before that) because I have total feelings about everyone involved in that, but I can't because you might not have seen it and I don't want to take that away from you. So instead, here's what I'll say- I love how disobedience at this school is going into the woods and reading poetry, I love how even the baddest of the boys really aren't that bad, I love how it reminded me that poetry isn't so bad**, and I love how Robin Williams lights up every scene he's in, and shakes up the lives of boys that have always just done what they're told and haven't ever been taught to love things that aren't money or success.

Also, this: "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for." Just, yes. Please.

This probably should have been a full review rather than a mini one, because I still have so much more to say. But watch it, watch it, watch it, and we'll talk further in the comments.

Beginners

I only vaguely knew of Beginners because Christopher Plummer won an Oscar for it, so when it was on TV (a LONG time ago, now) I figured it was worth recording. This film kind of blew me away- I don't know if it's because I had somehow gotten the wrong idea about it (I thought it was going to be more comedic than it actually was) or because it's genuinely as excellent as I think it is, but either way I was so incredibly impressed, and yes, I'll say it, moved by this film.

Let's see if I can describe it in a way that makes it sound at all appealing... So Ewan McGregor plays this guy whose father has just died, but before he did, he came out as gay and lived voraciously until he died. This is making this all sound a lot more linear than it actually is, because really the film cuts between Ewan McGregor in the present trying to cope with grief along with being more open to other people because of it. This style is something which works really well, in that these flashbacks cut in when McGregor is trying to do other things, which is absolutely how grief works, but it's not just the style. Everything about this film is sort of beautiful, and perfect, and so so sad, so of course- of COURSE I loved it.

I don't think I've done a very good job of summing it up at all, and I feel like that might be because it's not a film that can be summed up very well, or maybe I'm writing this too soon after I've seen it so it's all still too fresh. Wikipedia tells me it's based on the writer/director's actual experience of his father coming out at 75, which explains why it feels so honest and true, and it's a shame that, in a film that does such a good job of describing entire character traits in such a few lines, I can't do it the same justice in this tiny review. Consider this, when Christopher Plummer explains to Ewan McGregor why he's with the man he's with:

"Well, let's say that since you were little, you always dreamed of getting a lion. And you wait, and you wait, and you wait, and you wait, but the lion doesn't come. And along comes a giraffe. You can be alone, or you can be with the giraffe."

"I'd wait for the lion."

"That's why I worry about you."

I mean, right? RIGHT?! So revelatory about Ewan McGregor's character, in so few words. Basically, you have to watch this because I'm doing a terrible job of describing it, but just don't let the fact that I've apparently forgotten the names of all the characters put you off because that's not important, right? Of course not.


*Dramatic? Perhaps. But would you have me any other way?
**I kind of hate poetry, I think really only because it reminds me that I don't really have a beautiful soul because I don't really get it. Like, hardly ever. But this film made me feel like I could, maybe.

Devouring Films: The Lookout

I'm not sure I've ever been as surprised by a film as I was by The Lookout. It's not that I wasn't expecting it to be good because, with JGL as the leading man I never expect anything but perfection

But just from looking at the movie poster, and reading the description of it on Netflix, it sounded very much like a straightforward action movie with not all that much going for it except, obviously, for JGL. (Does my JGL-worship bore anyone? I mean... I don't really care if it does, but I am interested!) But anyway, I couldn't have been more wrong, and for that I am grateful.

I watched The Lookout on the night I learnt what stomach lining tastes like (sorry...), just before all the vomiting, so the fact that I still think it's an awesome film is a testament to... What an awesome film it is. If it had been any less than what it is, I would feel faintly queasy at the thought of it (negative associations and all) but actually I pretty much feel like I want to watch it AGAIN because it's kind of complex and brilliant and I love it?

So. JGL plays this guy who is the ice hockey STAR of his high school (is ice hockey even big in Kansas? I have no idea) who one night drives like a moron and ends up with short term memory problems. We next see him 4 years later, when he's trying to figure out how to live his life when he can hardly remember the most basic of things (where the can opener is, for example) and trying to reconcile the way he lives now with the way he used to be. It's honestly heartbreaking (possibly mainly because I love JGL... But only because he MAKES me love him, with all the acting he does), and I was kind of like... This is the weirdest start to an action film...

And it kind of kept not being an action film! I mean, there are some guns, and there's some plotting, and it's pretty dramatic, but if it is an action film, then it's a really really character-based one and it didn't make me roll my eyes or sigh even ONCE. It's more like... Here's this guy whose life has very very much not turned out like he wanted it to, and someone (a VERY manipulative someone) offers him a chance to, if not go back to the way things were, at least to make things better for himself now, if by better you mean being part of a bank heist and stealing money so you can buy stuff. Too bad there's no cure for memory damage.

And it's really really sad to go through the various stages of this dilemma with JGL, and some EVEN sadder things happen (there's a particular sad thing that happens that I don't think is dealt with seriously enough, because it happens in the middle of an actiony bit. Aaaaaand there's basically my entire problem with action movies.) but mostly it's a film about learning to accept the lot in life you've been given and do the best with it that you can. Oh, and not to rob banks. That's an important message too.

So. In a nutshell, I really liked this film, as I almost always like films that involve JGL. Unlike SOME of his films though (say, for example, 50/50) The Lookout didn't SCAR me so that I can never watch it again- in fact, I kind of want to watch it again, like, right now. The mark of a good film, or evidence of an overwhelming JGL obsession? We may never know...

Devouring Films: Lincoln

I accidentally went to see Lincoln last week, a happy little mistake that was caused by the internet LYING to me about movie times for Les Mis, my mum being gracious and agreeing to go and see this instead, and my eternal love for Daniel Day-Lewis. (Don't worry- we saw Les Mis at the weekend, and I will never trust the internet again. Lessons learned all round.)

But Lincoln. WOAH. I'm not going to say that I just completely and utterly loved the film, or there weren't times when I wanted to sleep a tiiiiny bit (I had been to work beforehand, to be fair) but I was uncomplicatedly blown away by Daniel Day-Lewis, or maybe I should say Daniel Day-LINCOLN. Because I mean, seriously, there's acting and then there's just downright POSESSION, and well, I think DDL was definitely channeling old Abe in this movie. SERIOUSLY FREAKY (and, you know, awesome.)

I kind of envisaged Lincoln as a biopic in a traditional sense- they'd get someone to play young Abe, there'd be some heartbreak in his formative years before he finally found a good woman and she helped him become President, and THEN he'd free the slaves, but actually Lincoln turned out to be a lot more interesting than that. What it's more like is a really long episode of The West Wing set in the 19th Century (so not TONS like The West Wing), covering the time juuuust before Lincoln's second inauguration up to SPOILER (lol) his assassination, i.e. a period of about 4 months, ALSO i.e. the time he got the Thirteenth Amendment passed and freed the slaves and all. If you're an American you're probably like 'yep, learnt allllll about that at school', but we have abouuut a thousand years of Monarchy to cover, so WE DID NOT. And so I was way interested, and I was learning stuff.

Like, I learned that Lincoln's eldest son (played admirably by a chronically underused JGL with a tash) didn't massively love his dad, and totally defied him to run off and join the army. And I re-learned that it takes a lot more than just a President to get a bill passed in Congress. And that the Republicans and Democrats used to have the opposite roles to the ones they have now, and HEY how did that happen? I also importantly remembered how much I love Tommy Lee Jones as an actor, suddenly realised that the sponsor of the 13th Amendment was Gale Boetticher from Breaking Bad AND that Spielberg really is a kind of awesome director, which I guess is something I've been denying forever because his films are, you know, popular?

Anyway. Lincoln maybe isn't a perfect film, but its opening is wonderful, its middle bits are great, and the part in Congress where the Congressmen were voting on the Thirteenth Amendment made me want to jump to my feet and applaud every 'yea' vote. And also to cry juuuust a teeny bit. Other than the rousing bits in the house, my favourite parts were probably those where Abe and his wife, Mary (played by Sally Field, a casting decision which confused me because she's like, what, 65 and she's supposed to have a 10 year old kid? BUT she was actually awesome, as she tends to be) have conversations in her bedroom, she still cut up with grief over the death of their son a couple of years before, he frustrated with her and her grief... I realise I'm not making these conversations sound like the best, but it shows a side to Lincoln so different to his public persona that it's really interesting, and sometimes heartbreaking to watch.

My other other favourite bits are Lincoln's monologues. I can but assume that he actually did, in hugely important meetings, take whatever they were talking about, find an anecdote that loosely related to it and tell it, before finally, FINALLY bringing it round to the point, again. At least, I hope he did because it is AMUSING and also kind of brilliant, and really really really reminded me of The West Wing (I'm assuming that Aaron Sorkin put a little bit of Lincoln, and maybe all the Presidents he admired into President Bartlet, because he does that anecdote thing A LOT.) One of Lincoln's senior staff gets so annoyed by this that he storms off ("You're going to tell one of your stories! I can't stand to hear another one of your stories!") rather than listen to another anecdote, but... Imagine getting to listen to one of President Lincoln's stories! And because DDL has somehow morphed into Lincoln, well, you kind of get to.

So this was ridiculously long, and garbled, and if you stayed for the whole thing then THANK YOU, and have a cookie (cookies not included). Basically, the point is this: Abraham Lincoln was a pretty super dude, and even though I was expecting a biopic, I'm not sure observing him over a longer time period would do him any more justice than watching him in his last months, and finest hours. In film terns, it's kind of unfair to all other actors that Daniel Day-Lewis exists, because he is the actual amazingest and should win ALL THE OSCARS (apart from Best Supporting Actress, for that must go to Anne Hathaway). And, yeah, you should probably go and see Lincoln. ESPECIALLY if you're not American, because hello History lesson taught by DDL. If only all teachers were you...

Devouring Films: 50/50

I realised that I probably shouldn't be watching 50/50 about 15 minutes in, when JGL's character got diagnosed with spinal cancer and I started crying. I realised I should probably turn it off when, having cried intermittently for the next hour, I started sobbing like I was crying over something that was actually happening. When actually, I suppose, I was crying about things that had already happened.

It wasn't pretty, either way.

But that's me. And I'm not saying that anyone else would just be fine with JGL pretending to have cancer, because really, it's harrowing, but I think it's that extra special bit more upsetting for anyone who has either a) had cancer themselves, or b) been a second party to the whole cancer experience. And that's because it's all so realistic- from diagnosis, to treatment, to JGL's feeling ill all. The. Time, it just really related to my second-party experience of it this year. And I don't know if it would have been any easier if I'd watched it in a few years, when it wasn't all so fresh, but... I doubt it.

But enough of my psychological scars (for now)! I think it's going to be hard for me to say anything objective about 50/50, but I will say that I think it's a pretty good film that I will probably never watch again. Which is a rare thing- usually when I think a film is good, I want to watch it more than once, but... Not this one. But this doesn't mean that I don't think anyone should watch it, just that I can't again. But you should. Probably. (See? Tricky.) A film about a 27 year old who is diagnosed with a fairly severe form of cancer is obviously (obviously!) never going to be a barrel of laughs, so I think you need to be in the right frame of mind to watch it, but not watching it isn't going to stop 27 year olds getting cancer in real life, whereas watching it might just give you a teensy idea of what that might be like. And an understanding of other people's viewpoints and experiences- isn't that exactly what books and films should strive to do? Exactly.

As for the actors, frankly I could have done without Seth Rogen's presence* (but then, I nearly always could) because this was never going to be a 'buddy comedy' and falls flat in the places where it most tries to be. JGL is, of course, magnificent, and I realise that I say this all the time, but seriously- if he hadn't been so convincing, I wouldn't have cried half as much, and he does it in a way that isn't horrible and obvious- it's like, because his character is fairly shut off from his emotions anyway, when they finally do break through it's heartbreaking. Which is, of course down to the writing as well as the acting, but... JGL does it well. Of course. Anna Kendrick is also good, and I found her really convincing as the slightly doe-eyed therapist who JGL really needs.

And I don't really think there's much more I can say. I was left completely drained by this film, and I still don't know if that's in a good way or a bad way, but I just know that I think it's pretty good/completely traumatising. And yet I still want you to watch it? I do. I think catharsis is important, I think it would be a shame to miss JGL's performance just because it might be upsetting (it's supposed to be) and apparently it's a dramadey, so... you might get some more humour out of it than I did. But either way, you will probably weep, and you know what? Maybe that's ok.

*Note: I just read about how this film came about, and... now I feel bad for saying that I could do without him in it. Since the dude who wrote the film and actually had cancer was actually his friend.... Hmm.

Devouring Films: Looper

Please Note: This is going to be more of a recap than a review, so there will be spoilers. So if you haven't seen Looper, I'd probably stop reading now. Also I'd probably get myself to a cinema cause, you know, it's kind of a big deal.

When the casting people involved with Looper approached Bruce Willis for the role of Old Joe in Looper, I wonder how they sold it to him. 'So, Bruce, we won't be asking you to do anything that you haven't done a million times before, just the usual you know, running around and shooting people whilst miraculously avoiding being shot because you're the greatest. You will have to be the older version of this kid, JGL, but don't worry- we'll change his face so he looks like you because let's face it, you're the real hero. You will have to speak like one line of French though. So, whaddaya say?'

How could he refuse?

So, I finally saw Looper yesterday and, despite being snarky about Bruce Willis's role since, come on, he wasn't exactly stretched by it; I was otherwise completely and utterly impressed. It's been added to my 'list of things I was sceptical about but ended up LOVING' which obviously doesn't exist in physical form because who can be bothered? But is still a real thing that applies to a lot of things I see or read. Looper surprised me in ways I wasn't expecting, which meant that it delighted me, as all good cinema-going experiences should (especially ones that cost more than £8. Oy.)

If you'll allow me to get specific, I'll try to explain exactly why I liked it so much. From the beginning, it doesn't feel like a typical action movie; since it starts in a cornfield and things are set up so that the people being killed can't really fight back, there's limited potential for it to be the typical blockbuster-that-makes-me-roll-my-eyes. The action aspect of Looper is what made me dubious about its goodness, so I was really happy that it wasn't just a load of set pieces of shit-getting-blown-up and 20 car chases and people running around shooting each other. There were parts that were like this, of course, but it's not nearly what all of the film is like, which is definitely a good thing.

What I really liked were the small things. How TK is mentioned really really subtly in the in the first 5 minutes of the movie and you don't even notice and then it becomes a central problem, or maybe the central problem. How there's no attempt to really explain time travel and all the paradoxes it creates, but instead a more sensory explanation is given: how it feels to BE the paradox. And maybe above all, I love how this whole dystopian city is created and then practically ignored so that JGL, ostensibly the action hero, can sit in the middle of a cornfield for the majority of the movie. I mean, WHO DOES THAT?! It's unexpected, unprecedented, and awesome.

While we're on the subject of JGL, we need to talk about two things: that face, and how awesome his character becomes. Oh, and Kevin. (Sorry.) But first, THAT FACE! I feel like I know JGL's beautiful face so well (better than I know his full name, if I'm honest) that its BruceWillis-like modifications (which, admittedly, did make him look like Bruce Willis) really freaked me out. I understand why they did it, and I also understand, features-wise, why they modified JGL instead of Bruce (in general, JGL's features seem kind of... smaller? And it's easier to make his features bigger than Bruce's smaller. Or something.) but still... I wanted him to have his face back!

And now, for character development. I feel like, in the beginning, JGL isn't necessarily someone you're sure you want to root for. I mean, he sells his best friend for silver (and how horrific was that?!) and, let's face it, he's a professional killer. It kind of feels, though, that everything else that happens to him in the film means that he has the opportunity to atone for this one action, and to try and stop himself from becoming the bitter self he sees in Bruce Willis. In the end, he's kind of a tragic hero- he sees this one woman willing to die for her son (aside: HOW CREEPY WAS THAT KID?!) and a man willing to kill for his wife, and he knows both that he's never felt this way about another person (see: selling his best friend out for silver) and that he can stop both of these things from happening. So he does, and he saves the world. We hope.

I realise that this is just a ramble-jumble-love thing about Looper, and you know what? I'm perfectly ok with that. I only saw it yesterday and already can't wait to see it again, although I will wait, obviously, because WOAH cinema prices! (I know I sound like an old person. But I hadn't been to the cinema for ages!) But basically, just like every other film I've seen involving JGL, it rocks.

What did YOU think of Looper?

Devouring Films: Mysterious Skin

I watched Mysterious Skin on Netflix the other week, and it's at once the most traumatic and sad thing I've maybe ever seen, but at the same time, completely and utterly compelling. You've probably never heard of it, and admittedly I hadn't either, before I searched for Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Netflix and was enticed into watching it that way (I do love him so). It's pretty tragic, actually, that it's so little known, because it's probably one of his best performances, or at least one that truly stretches him as an actor (as, indeed, it would stretch anyone who played it). I loved it almost as much as I hated the things that happened in it.

I don't really massively want to review it, so much as talk about the main thing that impressed me about it. See, Mysterious Skin is basically a tale of child molestation, and its after-effects and what it does to its victims. Joseph Gordon Levitt (JGL to, well, me) plays Neil, the baseball coach's 'favourite' and the boy who, after it's over, fully remembers it all, and even thinks upon it fondly as a time when someone truly loved him (which isn't to say that he's not completely fucked up by it, because he's a male prostitute for goodness sakes. But it seems like his feelings about the abuse are very complex and maybe not even entirely settled.) The flipside of the story is the other boy who was abused, who has completely sublimated the entire thing but it's still had an effect on the things he does.

So that's what happens afterwards. But what the film actually does is show the abuse (to a certain extent), which obviously makes the film a whole lot more shocking, and I'm sure earned it plenty of criticism before and I'm sure after its release. Criticism which, I think, is pretty unfair considering how utterly well done it is. Because it's so clever- apparently the child actors were given their lines out of context so they weren't traumatised by the whole abuse thing (LIKE I WAS WATCHING IT) and the molester's propositioning and pleasure faces (pleasure faces? I feel like any way I said this would be wrong...) are done directly to camera, which has the dual bonus of not inflicting that on the kids, and also putting the audience in the children's position. So I approve of this because of 1) the sensitivity towards the child actors, and 2) the impact on the audience (i.e. me).

And I mean... I guess the film would still have worked without explicitly showing the abuse (I mean... not explicitly. But it's really clear what's happening. And apparently difficult to explain) but because they did so, it was really easy to see where Neil's issues especially came from (this guy was paying him LOADS of unhealthy attention, but to this 8 year old kid, it felt like really nice attention especially because his mother doesn't seem overly interested in him), and because it was so well done, it seems difficult to complain about. Also, I just have to add that child JGL is SO good- He really looks like a teeny version of JGL, only with really deep blue eyes (seriously cute kid) and so to get round this they got JGL to wear blue contact lenses. I am totally on board with this too.

Mysterious Skin is in no way easy to watch, but on balance I'm really glad that I did. I'm so impressed with how cleverly and sensitively everything was done, and I feel like the subject matter, which is more or less the WORST in the world was handled really really well. The ending is incredibly moving, and overall, I just really really appreciated the film. I would say liked, but liked is the wrong word, so appreciated? Much better. I should probably add as a disclaimer that Michelle Trachtenburg is also in this film, but you can mainly just ignore her as you always should. JGL forever though!