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cbarry39
Reviews
Wedding in White (1972)
Incredible.
I just finished seeing Wedding in White and I have to say that the experience was somewhat akin to seeing Herzog's 'Even Dwarfs Started Small' or Duk's 'Address Unknown' for the first time. Here's the synopsis:
During World War 2 in small town Ontario, Canada, a mousey sixteen year old girl gets raped at her house by a friend of a friend. When her Catholic mother finds out that her daughter is carrying a child from the attack she accuses her daughter of bringing it on herself. Now for those of you who don't know, in Canada they were incarcerating young girls for promiscuity as late as the sixties, so being the forties, the mother pleads with her husband not to send their young girl away. Let's just say that the alternative they come up is worse than you could ever imagine.
For those who can tolerate this kind of difficult subject matter, I highly recommend this film. Talk about Subconscious Cruelty!
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Hopeless
I went to see "A Beautiful Mind" expecting an intelligent film about John Nash, a unique man who significantly contributed to economic theory, battled schizophrenia and won a Nobel Prize. I guess that was some other film because I ended up seeing a t.v. movie of the week about a guy who you wouldn't know was a genius if Ron Howard didn't just tell you. I've read articles in Reader's Digest that have more depth than this dribble.
" A Beautiful Mind" is a textbook example of why Hollywood's cinematic hegemony must be stopped at any cost. Terribly directed, terribly written, and poorly acted. I figured the awesome Russell Crowe who was so great in " The Insider" and " Romper Stomper" could have held his own here, but I guess even he couldn't survive Ron Howard's touch of death.
I can't understand why this film is getting such rave reviews except that Ron Howard's career is in serious, serious decline and the establishment feels like they're obliged to give him some kind of award before he makes something no one will be able to forgive him for.
If you want to see a film about schizophrenia, that's touching, vivid and real, rent Harmony Korine's Julian Donkey Boy. Now there's a film that actually deserves an award.
Seul contre tous (1998)
One of the best of the Nineties
After a very long wait, I finally got a chance to see Gaspar Noe's Seul Contre Tous and, surprisingly, it not only lived up to my high expectations, but actually exceeded them. What really impressed me was how director Gaspar Noe employed voice-over.
Less a straight up narrative, Seul Contre Tous, is really a ninety minute internal monologue. The main character, a tormented butcher who goes to Paris in search of his daughter lets fly with some of the most outrageously misogynistic, misanthropic ranting ever committed to celluloid, but the power of the film really lies in the way the character blames such disparate targets as Nazism, homosexuals, immigrants, and France itself for his poor stature in life, only to turn around and blame them again.
What's incredible is that there's a point in the film where the butcher's constant raging becomes mind-numbing, but then, around the seventy-five minute mark, once you think you've heard all he has to say ten times too many, you realize that this is the point of the film. It's frustrating enough spending ninety minutes WATCHING this guy, but Noe has drawn the main character so well and made his anger and ignorance so palpable that I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like BEING this guy. And this, I think, is where the true power of SCT lies.
Additionally, the conclusion of SCT is probably one of the greatest in the history of film. The way Noe treats the butcher's stream of consciousness at the climax should be studied by film students for years to come.
By the way, I noticed a lot of people describe this film as violent. I think violent is too simple a word. Inarguably, this movie is dark and disturbing, but violent? Despite a horrific beating at the head of the film, there's actually very little graphic violence, so those who enjoy pensive, daring films that take real risks, but are a little shy of high death counts should not dismiss this film immediately. Please take a look at it and judge for yourself, you might be happy you did.
Going Overboard (1989)
Worse than you can ever imagine.
"Why God?" is one of the many questions you'll be asking yourself during this painful, painful early Adam Sandler flick. The script, timing, lighting, even the Adr and sound sync are waaaayyy off. And why does General Noriega look like he's being played by Bob Hoskins with a bad tan? This movie made me want to set my television on fire. I've always found Sandler's appeal somewhat dubious, but after "Going Overboard" it's clear that most of his professional success is probably due to a blood pact he made with Satan around 1991. I can't believe Billy Bob Thorton and Billy Zane didn't take their name off this piece of garbage or collaborate on a master plan to destroy every copy of it in existence. This movie is concrete proof that there is REAL EVIL in the world. You've been warned.
Baise-moi (2000)
A bleak portrait of contemporary France.
When I first saw Baise-Moi, I felt somewhat disoriented and it took me several days to really make sense of it. What I discovered, was that the most memorable thing about Baise-Moi, was not its graphic sex or violence (and there's plenty), but rather this strange meloncholy, intentional or not, that drenches every frame of the picture.
Every character in the "Baise-Moi" is flawed; either they are abusive or they are abused, victims or victimizers, and it's really in the throw-away scenes, like when a drug dealing acquaintance of one of the main characters is savagely beaten in an alleyway, that Baise-Moi is most effective, reminding us of the environment that prompted these women to do what they did.
Although the filmmakers have mentioned in interviews that they were just trying to make an exploitation film and had to pull off the intellectual stuff after being threatened with an X rating, it's clear that both women, one of whom has worked in pornography, possess an anger that burns so deep within them that they can't seem to acknowledge it themselves.
Ironically, there's even a scene in the film where the two anti-heroes murder a bourgois psychologist for suggesting that they must have "been hurt really bad" to do what they do. Well, the fact is, they have been hurt, whether they want to admit it or not. A lot of "Baise Moi"'s energy emerges from this crucial point.
The only thing that I didn't like about "Baise-Moi" was that the main characters were women. Although it's widely accepted that it's daring to show "women as victimizers", I felt that this device was a bit of a smoke screen. If men were put in the exact same position, (a la "I Stand Alone") the film would have been fifteen times more disturbing because it would have been, utterly, utterly senseless, almost to the point of indulgence (see Pasolini's Salo.). The fact that the characters are women, redeem "Baise-Moi" somewhat, because it's bridging cinematic ground and playing with stereotypes. This sensibility allows "Baise Moi"'s audience to forgive the women a little more than they should.
Certainly, "Baise-Moi" isn't for everyone, but it is a strong reminder that in this world, a little bit of compassion or self-worth goes a long, long way. Ultimately, like Heneke's "The Seventh Continent" or Gaspar Noe's " Seul Contre Nous", it really ends up asking more questions than it's prepared to answer, but in the end, it's a better film for doing so.