Movies By Starlight + Good Shit Happens DVD (A++)
Movies By Starlight is an annual summer event here in Wellington. This was the first time I went, for just one of the three nights to see the Short Films program. It was truly outstanding. All of the films, with perhaps one exception (“The Hill”), were extremely well made, finely crafted, intelligent pieces of work that all had a distinctly Kiwi voice.
Highlights included “The Platform”, which featured a great soundtrack and a fun little plot. “The Freezer” had a really nice story with superb cinematography. “French Doors” was a sweetly odd ‘thriller’.
However, the film that stole the show is one of the best short films I think I have ever seen in my life. “Two cars, one night” is a really touching story about a few little kids who have been left to wait in the family car outside a bar at night. The dialog is so real and beautiful. The kids’ acting is brilliant. The atmosphere is perfectly captured. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so perfect.
There’s a great write up about the filmmaker in the Listener. And if you want to buy the film, along with some yummy Kiwi beats, you can buy it on DVD from Smoke.
After getting a copy of the Loop 005 Good Shit Happens CD/DVD/Book I must say it is absolutely brilliant. It’s got great music, great music videos and great short films. The production values and the shear talent are pretty mind blowing. If you ever wanted a taste of what’s happening in New Zealand youth culture then this is it. And I’d say it’s more interesting than most things happening in youth culture anywhere.
Art House, Comedy, Documentary, Experimental, Fantasy, Intellectual, Musical, New Zealand, Sci Fi, Slow Paced | TrackBack (0)
The Good Girl (B)
This was a good renter. Jennifer Aniston was surprisingly good in Office Space and it seems her talents are better suited for the big screen than TV. In fact, the entire cast were really solid. John C Reilly is always a fave, the actor who played Bubba (also seen in O Brother) was goofy and creepy as, and the rest of the supporting cast were also really excellent.
The fascinating thing is that the guy who played Corny the security guard wrote the screenplay. Not only that, it turns out he wrote the screenplay to School Of Rock, as well. Which we also happened to have just seen this week (to be reviewed).
The writing, the location, the art direction were all dead on. The story was fairly dark and tragic, but not overdone. A scary insight into mainstream America. It's the story of what happened to some of the people you knew growing up that never left their hometown. Which is another way of saying here's one of the bullets you dodged.
Acting: B+
Direction: B
Editing: B
Script: B
Cinematography: B-
Soundtrack: B
Art House, Comedy, Cringe, Drama, Moody, Romance | TrackBack (0)
Lost In Translation (C+)
Interesting moments, but ultimately it has no depth. Mildly funny. Definitely not hilarious, as people have been raving.
Aimless. Yes, I know that's the point. But it's aimless and it has nothing important to say. Which makes it aimless and pointless.
It seems like Copolla wants to show character depth using the least amount of dialog possible. That works well for others (Jim Jarmusch) but in Copolla's case it's a thin disguise for having nothing to say and not knowing how to say it. She uses style and superficial conversations in an attempt to imply something deep, but never actually says anything deep.
Stylistically, it has its moments, but Virgin Suicides was a lot more interesting in that regard.
Bill Murray was okay, but definitely not Oscar worthy. The whole performance I was looking at Bill Murray, not his character, being bored and unchallenged. His performance in Rushmore was a real departure and the character completely came to life.
IMO, Giovanni Ribisi stole the show. His character and his acting had more depth, more intrigue and more substance than any others. I would have much rather seen a movie following his character.
It also had the interesting effect of de-glamorizing Tokyo for me. It made Tokyo seem a lot less appealing and a lot less mysterious than I have always imagined it to be.
I identified with a lot of the situations of being bored in the company of hipsters, including the Charlie Brown character and the Tokyo scenesters. And just like in real life, it made me think of all the other better things I could be doing with my time.
Acting: C
Direction: C
Editing: B
Script: C
Cinematography: B
Soundtrack: B+
Art House, Comedy, Drama, Moody, Slow Paced
Camp (B)
Meatballs meets Fame with occasional moments of Mighty Wind (and/or Waiting for Guffman).
I was expecting it to be overly self-referential and smug and try-hard. Instead, it's quite earnest, naive, vulnerable and well, duh, campy. Everything gets a bit cheesy but it has been cleverly delivered so that it looks and feels intentional, and feels right.
The acting is surprisingly good. The music is surprisingly good (except for one song/scene). It has its too cheesy for its own good moments. But overall holds up.
Acting: B
Direction: B
Editing: B
Script: A
Cinematography: B
Soundtrack: A
Art House, Comedy, Drama, Mockumentary, Romance
Master and Commander (A)
I was definitely worried that this movie was going to be a Russell Crowe vehicle to do his broody action hero thing. Which it was. But I have to say Crowe did a great job and the supporting cast was outstanding. Particularly the kid actors, I'm happy to report.
I love period pieces. You can tell that they really made huge efforts to maintain accuracy. The attention to detail is outstanding. I also really appreciated that it wasn't battle scenes interspersed with filler. It did give you the sense that being on the high seas was a lot of hard work, moments of good camaraderie, moments of dark tortuous hell, and eventually after a good long chase there would be some action.
Hadley complained that it was missing something. After thinking about that, I think it would have been even better if there were a few more scenes of the boys sharing 'war stories' which could have provided even more depth and intrigue.
I especially enjoyed it, being myself out at sea on an island in the South Pacific, at the mercy of the big weather - thinking about all the original settlers that arrived here by similar means.
Acting: A
Direction: A
Editing: A
Script: A
Cinematography: A
Soundtrack: A
Effects: A
Action, Drama, Hollywood, Thriller
Peter Pan (B+)
A really fun movie. We saw it with Emory, which was a real treat. He loved it. He was laughing all the way through and quoting scenes afterwards.
The kids were fine, they didn't ruin it, but I was always conscious that they were kids acting in a movie. The pirates, especially Captain Hook, stole the show. They were brilliant. And the real fun is the croc. Definitely captured the magic of Peter Pan in a vivid and authentic way.
Acting: B+
Direction: A
Editing: A
Script: A
Cinematography: B+
Soundtrack: B-
Effects: B+
Action, Children's, Comedy, Fantasy, Hollywood
The Hours (D)
With such a hot cast and great recommendations I was hoping this would be good, but frankly I was not expecting much.
In fact, it's dreadful rubbish. Full of itself. Pretentious. Predictable. Overbearing. Everyone is a tedious, tortured thespian. Everything is melodramatic. No subtlety.
And the soundtrack reminded me of that old SNL spoof of an art movie where a 'haunting piano' plays while Lorraine Newman desperately hunts for what's making the awful, repetitive, droning noise.
We couldn't even finish watching it, it was that bad.
Acting: C-
Direction: D
Editing: C
Script: D
Cinematography: C
Soundtrack: D
Bio Pic, Drama, Hollywood, Slow Paced
Rain (A+)
Rain beautifully captures and evokes an amazing range of emotions and memories. It is a quintessential Kiwi film that translates perfectly across cultures. Albeit, white middle class cultures. It's the story of a family spending a summer holiday together. Mostly it's about growing pains.
The one major flaw with the film is the ending, which is sadly predictable. It is a terribly unfortunate way to end the film, because it completely moralizes the story. All throughout the film you identify so deeply with all of the characters and then by taking things to the extreme it suddenly distances you from those people - it allows you to feel superior when in fact you are not at all.
Despite the unfortunate ending this film is an absolute must see. Perfect in every other aspect.
Acting: A
Direction: A+
Editing: A
Script: B
Cinematography: A+
Soundtrack: A+
Art House, Cringe, Drama, Moody, New Zealand, Slow Paced
Spellbound (A)
Spellbound lives up to the hype. It is a great doco that perfectly captures Americana, puberty, parenthood, class struggles, all based on a surprisingly innocent and thrilling competition.
Acting: NA
Direction: A
Editing: A
Writing: A
Cinematography: A
You Can Count On Me (A)
Perfectly balanced movie, excellent acting, excellent story, excellent characters, funny, poignant, and plenty of cringe moments. It does land on the conventional side of things, but as far as conventional movies go, it's very well crafted.
Mark Ruffalo is amazing. Rory Culkin is extremely good. Matthew Broderick revives his Election character with all the cringe in tact. However, I'd say Kenneth Lonergan arguably makes the strongest performance in my favorite scene, when 'Father Ron' (Lonergan) confronts the 'thoughtful fuck up' Terry (Ruffalo) about his personal world philosophy. I would have loved it if the film followed this line of thought more deeply.
I wish more people would have the courage to ask thoughtful questions and really pursue thoughtful answers.
This movie gets pretty close, but in the end, it decides not to make any statements. Instead, it opts to simply tell a good story about regular, but nevertheless interesting people.
Acting: A+
Direction: A+
Editing: A
Script: A
Cinematography: C
Art House, Cringe, Drama, Intellectual, Slow Paced
