Last year Pan's Labyrinth took the world by storm with its chilling horror, fable-like storytelling, eerie mysticism and deeply human insights into the life and mind of a child. Recently I had the pleasure of watching The Devil's Backbone, an earlier work by the same director, Guillermo del Toro, exhibiting the same qualities. This also involves a child and the Spanish Civil War, this time a young boy of about ten, Carlos, who is abandoned at a dirt-poor orphanage haunted by a ghost who sighs. The orphanage is run by an aging woman with a wooden leg, her equally venerable support and romantic love, and a younger man with a sinister side; in the center of its courtyard functioning as a constant reminder of the war outside is a large bomb that landed once, didn't explode, and was eventually disarmed. Reflecting the cruelty of their environment, the other boys bully Carlos at first, but he manages to befriend them and solve the mystery of the ghost.
The grittier camerawork and burnt-sienna color scheme distinguish The Devil's Backbone immediately from del Toro's more recent hit. The ghost itself is grotesque and truly horrifying, and the violence in the film reflective of both the personal cruelty of the human heart and the social cruelty of fascism and poverty. Unlike a Hollywood film, the movie doesn't begin its resolution at the biggest explosion or the most bodies acquired; it isn't over till the ramifications have been played out, till everything is even more ravaged than you thought it could be; like ghosts, the characters live on, demanding attention after they've been written off as doomed.
This short review can't begin to do justice to such a film, but I highly recommend it, especially for anyone who loved Pan's Labyrinth.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Night at the Museum (2006)
Last night, a bunch of my friends, all in college and thus purportedly adults, got together to watch Ben Stiller's comedic masterpiece Night at the Museum, in which hapless failed inventor Larry gets a job as a night watchman to impress his son from a failed marriage. (Paul Rudd appears, weirdly, as the ex-wife's new hubby, for about three scenes in which he gets zilch to do. I thought he had an actual career. Weird.)
Unfortunately, as we all know from the trailers, at the Museum of Natural History where Larry gets his job, a magical tablet brings everything to life at night. Larry spends much of the rest of the movie running around the museum wildly yelling things like "Ahhhh! Huns!", being shot with tiny flaming arrows by tiny Mayans, and feeding "gum-gum" to a large stone head that keeps calling him "dum-dum." Also, some lions chase him, and some surprise non-dead villains appear at the end to wreak even more havoc.
This was the kind of movie where you're sitting there going, "Oh, um, heh, that was kind of funny. Okay, so when is this over?" the entire time. Every time another night started we all groaned, feeling tricked since the title gives no indication that you have to sit through not one, but way too many nights at the museum. Nevertheless, certain things save the movie: Ben Stiller's boss, who is constantly being incoherently fretful in a ridiculous British accent and invents the inspired phrase "humor box," and a scene where Ben Stiller's mother plays an extremely disapproving lady at an employment office. Also, Larry's eventual resolution to the problem of Attila the Hun coming alive and wanting to rip his limbs off is classic.
Ben Stiller isn't terribly funny here -- think that episode of Friends where he played "The Screamer," who was over-the-top angry all the time and was much more shrill than comedic. But there are definitely some amusing moments, and I suppose if I'd been, you know, eight, or anywhere near the intended age demographic for this movie, I bet I would have enjoyed it.
In Summary: Recommended only if you're with your kids, you are a kid, or you combine with large quantities of beer.
Night at the Museum Drinking Game
1) Drink every time the movie is clearly trying to convince kids that doing research and learning about history is both fun and useful for real life.
2) Drink every time something happens that is so nonsensical that you don't really know how else you could react.
3) Two drinks for each instance of homoerotic subtext. You may think you're just imagining it at first, but you will be well and truly rewarded for your attention by the end.
Unfortunately, as we all know from the trailers, at the Museum of Natural History where Larry gets his job, a magical tablet brings everything to life at night. Larry spends much of the rest of the movie running around the museum wildly yelling things like "Ahhhh! Huns!", being shot with tiny flaming arrows by tiny Mayans, and feeding "gum-gum" to a large stone head that keeps calling him "dum-dum." Also, some lions chase him, and some surprise non-dead villains appear at the end to wreak even more havoc.
This was the kind of movie where you're sitting there going, "Oh, um, heh, that was kind of funny. Okay, so when is this over?" the entire time. Every time another night started we all groaned, feeling tricked since the title gives no indication that you have to sit through not one, but way too many nights at the museum. Nevertheless, certain things save the movie: Ben Stiller's boss, who is constantly being incoherently fretful in a ridiculous British accent and invents the inspired phrase "humor box," and a scene where Ben Stiller's mother plays an extremely disapproving lady at an employment office. Also, Larry's eventual resolution to the problem of Attila the Hun coming alive and wanting to rip his limbs off is classic.
Ben Stiller isn't terribly funny here -- think that episode of Friends where he played "The Screamer," who was over-the-top angry all the time and was much more shrill than comedic. But there are definitely some amusing moments, and I suppose if I'd been, you know, eight, or anywhere near the intended age demographic for this movie, I bet I would have enjoyed it.
In Summary: Recommended only if you're with your kids, you are a kid, or you combine with large quantities of beer.
Night at the Museum Drinking Game
1) Drink every time the movie is clearly trying to convince kids that doing research and learning about history is both fun and useful for real life.
2) Drink every time something happens that is so nonsensical that you don't really know how else you could react.
3) Two drinks for each instance of homoerotic subtext. You may think you're just imagining it at first, but you will be well and truly rewarded for your attention by the end.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Superbad (2007)
"You scratch our backs, we'll scratch yours."
"Funny thing about my back, is... it's located on my cock."
Superbad on IMDB
I almost don't want to give a synopsis here, even a brief one, because that would make this movie sound even sillier than, admittedly, it is. Basically, two awkward teenagers about to graduate high school, whiny asshole Seth and shy geeky Evan, try to get alcohol to impress two girls. Seth likes Jules, who's planning to throw a party, and Evan likes but is oblivious to the overtures of Becca. Meanwhile, their friend Fogel is the only one with a fake -- and he chose to change his name to "McLovin." Chaos ensues when McLovin is interrupted in his large purchase by a burglary, and taken on a wild ride by two cops -- one played by Seth Rogen, a writer of the script. Meanwhile, Seth and Evan have to deal with their impending separation, since Evan got into Dartmouth and Seth didn't. The last half of the movie actually kind of goes haywire, with a bunch of pointless digressions that make the ending seem twenty or thirty minutes late. (But it's still pretty damn funny getting there.)
If you liked Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you'll probably like this movie, as it involves a lot of the Apatow crew if not Apatow himself, and a similar sensibility. It's funny and incredibly crude and a little bit wise. The two friends are so clueless about girls that it's almost unbelievable, except that most of us -- except the lucky few who were cool in high school -- have been there.
I saw this over a week ago, and it's taken so long to post about it because I was mulling over this review (via Cinematical), which sparked a controversy. Flick Filosopher's review took issue with the film's treatment of women's sexuality, or lack thereof, saying that "[Superbad] suggests that these mysteries have yet to be solved, or even broached, by anyone involved in making this movie." I think it's a valid point that there's precious little adult wisdom about sexuality to be found in Superbad except insofar as the adolescents' "wisdom" is so ludicrous as to be clearly immature. And the treatment of the girls in the movie is minimalistic in the extreme; they don't behave exactly according to the boys' expectations, surprising them by being actual autonomous beings, but the movie doesn't care all that much about them.
Well... in the end, that's fine with me. I mean, teenaged boys don't always care about girls as autonomous beings either. (Grown-up boys, ditto.) Superbad is about the two boys and their friendship, and it does a great job with that -- it's funny and over-the-top but still real. Jonah Hill's character is a huge asshole, but he's hilarious; Michael Cera as shy Evan has great comic timing with his straight-man bit; and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell/McLoven is perfect as the ridiculous tool that we try to pretend we're not really friends with. They really want to relate to girls, but they just can't, and that's their whole problem. Superbad doesn't give them big epiphanies about girls (just one or two little ones), saving the big breakthrough for the Evan/Seth friendship. In the end, the boys don't understand much more about girls than they did in the beginning. And that's the way high school often goes.
In Summary: Funny and crude and spot-on, if a little bit too long. But if the Seth from the movie is anything like Seth Rogen in real life, then my drooling crush on Seth Rogen will end.
Related
07/27/07: Knocked Up (2006)
"Funny thing about my back, is... it's located on my cock."
Superbad on IMDB
I almost don't want to give a synopsis here, even a brief one, because that would make this movie sound even sillier than, admittedly, it is. Basically, two awkward teenagers about to graduate high school, whiny asshole Seth and shy geeky Evan, try to get alcohol to impress two girls. Seth likes Jules, who's planning to throw a party, and Evan likes but is oblivious to the overtures of Becca. Meanwhile, their friend Fogel is the only one with a fake -- and he chose to change his name to "McLovin." Chaos ensues when McLovin is interrupted in his large purchase by a burglary, and taken on a wild ride by two cops -- one played by Seth Rogen, a writer of the script. Meanwhile, Seth and Evan have to deal with their impending separation, since Evan got into Dartmouth and Seth didn't. The last half of the movie actually kind of goes haywire, with a bunch of pointless digressions that make the ending seem twenty or thirty minutes late. (But it's still pretty damn funny getting there.)
If you liked Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, you'll probably like this movie, as it involves a lot of the Apatow crew if not Apatow himself, and a similar sensibility. It's funny and incredibly crude and a little bit wise. The two friends are so clueless about girls that it's almost unbelievable, except that most of us -- except the lucky few who were cool in high school -- have been there.
I saw this over a week ago, and it's taken so long to post about it because I was mulling over this review (via Cinematical), which sparked a controversy. Flick Filosopher's review took issue with the film's treatment of women's sexuality, or lack thereof, saying that "[Superbad] suggests that these mysteries have yet to be solved, or even broached, by anyone involved in making this movie." I think it's a valid point that there's precious little adult wisdom about sexuality to be found in Superbad except insofar as the adolescents' "wisdom" is so ludicrous as to be clearly immature. And the treatment of the girls in the movie is minimalistic in the extreme; they don't behave exactly according to the boys' expectations, surprising them by being actual autonomous beings, but the movie doesn't care all that much about them.
Well... in the end, that's fine with me. I mean, teenaged boys don't always care about girls as autonomous beings either. (Grown-up boys, ditto.) Superbad is about the two boys and their friendship, and it does a great job with that -- it's funny and over-the-top but still real. Jonah Hill's character is a huge asshole, but he's hilarious; Michael Cera as shy Evan has great comic timing with his straight-man bit; and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Fogell/McLoven is perfect as the ridiculous tool that we try to pretend we're not really friends with. They really want to relate to girls, but they just can't, and that's their whole problem. Superbad doesn't give them big epiphanies about girls (just one or two little ones), saving the big breakthrough for the Evan/Seth friendship. In the end, the boys don't understand much more about girls than they did in the beginning. And that's the way high school often goes.
In Summary: Funny and crude and spot-on, if a little bit too long. But if the Seth from the movie is anything like Seth Rogen in real life, then my drooling crush on Seth Rogen will end.
Related
07/27/07: Knocked Up (2006)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Notes from the Cash Register at a Failing Video Store
The subtitle of this post could be, "Why I was too tired last night to watch and/or write up last night's Californication and Superbad, which by the way was awesome."
Customer: So where's that booklet you used to have telling me which movies are coming out?
Me: We're not getting new movies in anymore because we're closing the store, so we don't need the booklet.
Customer: Oh. Well it sure would be nice to know what movies are coming out.
(Customer spies a poster on the wall labeled "ATTENTION PARENTS," listing the movie ratings and explaining what each of them mean for your kid. You know, "G: take your kids," "NC-17: hire a sitter," that kind of thing.)
Customer: Is that a poster about the new movies coming out?
Me: That one on the wall? Um... it's a ratings poster.
Customer: Oh. 'Ratings.' So... is that a new movie about to come out?
Yeah, I... don't know. Then we spent an hour and a half giving advice to a coked-up 40-year-old about what movies to buy. He ended up buying 50 -- including A Cinderella Story, as in the Hilary Duff vehicle -- like, dude, don't you need that money for your other hobby?
Look for Californication, Superbad, and possibly a post on Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in the next day or two.
Customer: So where's that booklet you used to have telling me which movies are coming out?
Me: We're not getting new movies in anymore because we're closing the store, so we don't need the booklet.
Customer: Oh. Well it sure would be nice to know what movies are coming out.
(Customer spies a poster on the wall labeled "ATTENTION PARENTS," listing the movie ratings and explaining what each of them mean for your kid. You know, "G: take your kids," "NC-17: hire a sitter," that kind of thing.)
Customer: Is that a poster about the new movies coming out?
Me: That one on the wall? Um... it's a ratings poster.
Customer: Oh. 'Ratings.' So... is that a new movie about to come out?
Yeah, I... don't know. Then we spent an hour and a half giving advice to a coked-up 40-year-old about what movies to buy. He ended up buying 50 -- including A Cinderella Story, as in the Hilary Duff vehicle -- like, dude, don't you need that money for your other hobby?
Look for Californication, Superbad, and possibly a post on Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow in the next day or two.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Premonition (2007)
"Wednesday: JIM DIES."
Premonition on IMDB
So like, what's up with Sandra Bullock's script choices? Because this is her second project in recent memory (see The Lake House) that completely ignored common sense in its timeline tomfoolery. Time travel is one thing. Ridiculous plotlines that mess with time in ways that make no sense and have illogical consequences? Totally another.
As I post more on this blog, it will probably become clear that I would watch Sandra Bullock in literally anything, because I have had a borderline-unhealthy girlcrush on her since I saw While You Were Sleeping when I was about nine. I would watch her in a sequel to Jersey Girl. I would watch her in a third season to Summerland. Hell, I would watch her in an infomercial for milk-carton spouts. But I fell asleep TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW trying to watch this movie all the way through and didn't finish it till the third night.
Anyway, I had heard very mixed things about this movie -- many said it was terrible, some disagreed -- but I'm pitching my tent in the this-sucked camp. It had its strengths, like the fact that it was set in a family situation that was both touching and realistic in its portrayal of a troubled marriage, and its weaknesses, like the fact that the plot didn't make sense at all and the lovely Miss Bullock herself seemed to be kind of phoning it in half the time anyway. Probably because she was too confused about what was going on to do any whole-hearted acting.
The ending was hilarious, so that made the whole experience much more entertaining. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be hilarious, but isn't accidental comedy the best kind?
In Summary: Just don't. You're better off with The Lake House -- it's funnier.
Premonition on IMDB
So like, what's up with Sandra Bullock's script choices? Because this is her second project in recent memory (see The Lake House) that completely ignored common sense in its timeline tomfoolery. Time travel is one thing. Ridiculous plotlines that mess with time in ways that make no sense and have illogical consequences? Totally another.
As I post more on this blog, it will probably become clear that I would watch Sandra Bullock in literally anything, because I have had a borderline-unhealthy girlcrush on her since I saw While You Were Sleeping when I was about nine. I would watch her in a sequel to Jersey Girl. I would watch her in a third season to Summerland. Hell, I would watch her in an infomercial for milk-carton spouts. But I fell asleep TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW trying to watch this movie all the way through and didn't finish it till the third night.
Anyway, I had heard very mixed things about this movie -- many said it was terrible, some disagreed -- but I'm pitching my tent in the this-sucked camp. It had its strengths, like the fact that it was set in a family situation that was both touching and realistic in its portrayal of a troubled marriage, and its weaknesses, like the fact that the plot didn't make sense at all and the lovely Miss Bullock herself seemed to be kind of phoning it in half the time anyway. Probably because she was too confused about what was going on to do any whole-hearted acting.
The ending was hilarious, so that made the whole experience much more entertaining. Of course, it wasn't supposed to be hilarious, but isn't accidental comedy the best kind?
In Summary: Just don't. You're better off with The Lake House -- it's funnier.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Knocked Up (2006)
"He's playing fetch. With my kids. He is treating my kids like they're dogs."
Knocked Up on IMDB
Not as roaringly funny as I thought the next movie by Judd Apatow would be, but I happen to think that humbly funny, hairy, bumbling Seth Rogen is just about the cutest thing to happen to movies since Haley Joel Osment. So I watched Knocked Up in romantic-comedy mode and was quite satisfied with it; it was kind of similar to the sweeter parts of The 40 Year Old Virgin. (BTW, how awesome is it that platform-shoes guy from the latter movie got a nice big part in Knocked Up?) Basically, TV personality Katherine Heigl and aimless pothead Seth Rogen have a one-night stand that, because of miscommunication and extreme drunkenness, has consequences that surprise them but naturally don't surprise those of us who know the title of the movie. For the sake of their baby, they try to get to know one another and fit the unplanned pregnancy into their lives.
Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd, as Heigl's sister and brother-in-law trapped in a picket-fence life and a marriage fraught with tension, play That Couple. You know, the one we each have in our lives: the people you look at and then shudder, thinking, "God, I can NOT end up like them." It's spot-on. It's also a little bit scary because lots of people do end up that way. But Leslie Mann's shrill, narcissistic character is even sympathetic at times, far outreaching the hateful (and common) "shrew" stereotype even as it becomes painfully obvious why her husband might have a hard time enjoying his marriage. She's also very, very funny. Funnier still: the other side of the tracks, where Seth Rogen's slacker buddies build their all-nude-scenes-for-every-hot-actress-ever website and hurl hilarious epithets like "late John Lennon" at their friend who's growing a beard on a dare.
By now it's totally unoriginal to pick out the birth scene as the most memorable of the movie. But all I can say is, Knocked Up may do for unsafe sex what Jaws did for swimming. I mean, seriously. Ouch.
On the other hand, I love the way Apatow can combine sweetness with ridiculously funny and explicit humor that takes nothing away from the humanity of the characters. Like, how to have sex with a pregnant woman: underused but extremely fertile material for comedy. In Knocked Up, sex is part of life, neither an empty source of crude humor nor a mystical thing that happens in soft lighting and fades to black. I wish they hadn't made Seth Rogen shave his back though (I can't remember where I read this), because it would have made him that much more real. Hairy dudes have hairy backs. Hollywood should embrace that!
But besides the funny, and besides the romantic-comedy story arc that underlies the plot, this film hits where it hurts for anyone who is, or has been, a lost twenty-something. There's a universal anxiety being tapped into, here, about growing up, sacking up, and taking responsibility for the direction of your life.
In Summary: See it! I laughed not only because it was funny as hell, but because it's impossible not to identify with the messy lives and endearing neuroses of the characters.
Knocked Up on IMDB
Not as roaringly funny as I thought the next movie by Judd Apatow would be, but I happen to think that humbly funny, hairy, bumbling Seth Rogen is just about the cutest thing to happen to movies since Haley Joel Osment. So I watched Knocked Up in romantic-comedy mode and was quite satisfied with it; it was kind of similar to the sweeter parts of The 40 Year Old Virgin. (BTW, how awesome is it that platform-shoes guy from the latter movie got a nice big part in Knocked Up?) Basically, TV personality Katherine Heigl and aimless pothead Seth Rogen have a one-night stand that, because of miscommunication and extreme drunkenness, has consequences that surprise them but naturally don't surprise those of us who know the title of the movie. For the sake of their baby, they try to get to know one another and fit the unplanned pregnancy into their lives.
Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd, as Heigl's sister and brother-in-law trapped in a picket-fence life and a marriage fraught with tension, play That Couple. You know, the one we each have in our lives: the people you look at and then shudder, thinking, "God, I can NOT end up like them." It's spot-on. It's also a little bit scary because lots of people do end up that way. But Leslie Mann's shrill, narcissistic character is even sympathetic at times, far outreaching the hateful (and common) "shrew" stereotype even as it becomes painfully obvious why her husband might have a hard time enjoying his marriage. She's also very, very funny. Funnier still: the other side of the tracks, where Seth Rogen's slacker buddies build their all-nude-scenes-for-every-hot-actress-ever website and hurl hilarious epithets like "late John Lennon" at their friend who's growing a beard on a dare.
By now it's totally unoriginal to pick out the birth scene as the most memorable of the movie. But all I can say is, Knocked Up may do for unsafe sex what Jaws did for swimming. I mean, seriously. Ouch.
On the other hand, I love the way Apatow can combine sweetness with ridiculously funny and explicit humor that takes nothing away from the humanity of the characters. Like, how to have sex with a pregnant woman: underused but extremely fertile material for comedy. In Knocked Up, sex is part of life, neither an empty source of crude humor nor a mystical thing that happens in soft lighting and fades to black. I wish they hadn't made Seth Rogen shave his back though (I can't remember where I read this), because it would have made him that much more real. Hairy dudes have hairy backs. Hollywood should embrace that!
But besides the funny, and besides the romantic-comedy story arc that underlies the plot, this film hits where it hurts for anyone who is, or has been, a lost twenty-something. There's a universal anxiety being tapped into, here, about growing up, sacking up, and taking responsibility for the direction of your life.
In Summary: See it! I laughed not only because it was funny as hell, but because it's impossible not to identify with the messy lives and endearing neuroses of the characters.
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