Paco's Movie Reviews

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2009-01-10T22:24:00.000-08:00

Something funny happened to me after watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. As I drove home, every song I heard on the radio reminded me of the first time I heard it, and I started to compare how it was to hear them for the first time to hearing them now. That's when it hit me that that was what the movie was about, the way your mind goes backward the more time moves forward.

Isn't it funny how in hindsight, you were so much older in the past? Think of the major events that have happened in your life. The you that was then knew exactly how to handle them, and whether rightly or wrongly, the old you got you through. I think the reason so many of the important things in life happen in youth, like romantic love, developing passions and dreams, discovering loss, is because it is only when you are young that you are old enough to deal with them.

Benjamin Button starts his life very old, and dies a baby. But throughout the movie, he is really no different from the normal people around him. He is just a physical manifestation of how they really feel inside. In his early years, when he is a shriveled up little guy, he is treated like the rest of the old folks he lives with. They spend their days trapped inside the old folks' home, looking out windows in between their napping and feeding times, exchanging fanciful stories. Just like children do. Then Daisy comes to visit, the granddaughter of one of the boarders. She is only a few years younger than Benjamin, and they instantly see in each other kindred spirits. Only a truly young person such as Daisy could spot the child behind the wrinkles that cover Benjamin. The two become fast friends, but quickly discover the limits their age has on what they are allowed to do. Their friendship is considered vile by the grandmother, and they are not allowed to be together anymore.

The next time the two meet Daisy is in her early teens and Benjamin is still elderly, though much more mobile. This is when Benjamin leaves the home as most people do in their teens. Daisy demands he write to her from every place he visits, and Benjamin does. So while Daisy moves to New York and becomes a ballerina, Benjamin becomes a sailor and travels the world, though much like when one travels in youth he never really sees much of the world, just "sees the ports". Benjamin looks like an older man, and is both respected and ignored as such. He does manage to have an affair with a lonely married woman who never quite lived up to her dreams (she wanted to be the first woman to swim across the english channel, but quit when she was close to finishing, after 32 hours in the water). He also goes to war, and experiences the loss of friends that are taken too soon, before their time. Benjamin learns, at this point in his life, what it is like to fail in life, and spend year after year just treading water. Despite his actual age, Benjamin experiences middle age in all its loss and failings.

The next few times Daisy and Benjamin meet up are disasterous. Benjamin takes a luminous 23 year old Daisy out to dinner, where she breathlessly talks the whole night about the art of dancing. Benjamin, looking frumpy and defeated next to the fiery Daisy, is tongue tied during the dinner, and even more so afterwards, when Daisy dances seductively in the moonlight for him. He rejects her bold advances, and although it appears it is because he has some romantic view of her he does not wish to shatter, it is probably more likely that in her prime she is too much for him to handle. Later, when he goes to surprise her with flowers after a performance in New York, she shrugs him off, well into her new sophisticated life. She has found her life's passion, something Benjamin has yet to discover for himself. He looks and acts much like a failed old man, and when he mumbles "I thought I'd come to sweep you off your feet or something like that" both he and Daisy are aware of how ludicrous the statement is in light of who they are at that point in their lives.

It is only when Daisy suffers an accident and can no longer dance that she can slow down enough for Benjamin to catch up with her. In their early 40's, they are equals, meeting at that fleeting moment when their lives are on the same path. The two embark in an idylic love affair, during which Benjamin ponders sadly: "I was thinking how nothing lasts, and what a shame that is". To this Daisy wisely replies "some things last". The two have a child, and because Benjamin knows he cannot raise his daughter as the child he is destined to become, he leaves.

This is when Benjamin embarks on his own life's passion. He travels the world again, but this time as a young man, with all the whimsy and intelligence of youth. He finally catches up to the life experiences Daisy had when she was a young adult. It is only after this journey that Benjamin is able to come back home to see Daisy one last time. He is a teenager now, and Daisy an older woman. The two meet for one last night together, and the contrast between Daisy's sagging body and Benjamin's youthful glow is a striking parallel to Daisy's moonlit dance so many years before.

Benjamin ends his days in the same old folks' home he spent his early years trapped in. He becomes a wayward child who no longer remembers who he was or where he came from. Slowly, he shrinks into a baby, forgetting how to walk and speak, and dies He dies an infant in Daisy's withered arms.

The story is told as a flashback. Daisy, dying in a hospital during hurricane Katrina, asks her daughter Caroline to read from a diary. The diary is Benjamin Button's, and it is during this reading that Caroline learns this was her father. Caroline comes across as a woman who seems lost, worried she has somehow disappointed her mother. She is clueless as to how to live her life, literally caught in the eye of a hurricane. The diary ends with postcards Benjamin sent Caroline during his last trips around the world. It seems Daisy's dying wish is that her daughter learn from their love story that it is never too late for her to start over again, and that no matter how inconsequential she believes her life is, she gave meaning to someone's life, therefore she will always matter.

What a beautiful film. Every minor character adds to the the story line and theme. There is the old man in the home who was struck by lightning seven times for no apparent reason other than to live to tell it, the "plain as paper" married woman who finally accomplishes her dream of swimming across the english channel as an elderly woman after years of living her life just treading water, the preacher who heals the sick through prayer and faith who then falls dead on the pulpit, the artist whose only art are the tattoos he makes on his own body... they all have passions and dreams that while on the surface might seem inconsequential together make up the fabric of Benjamin's life. They became memories, people and events that became permanent images in the fabric of time. As Daisy said to Benjamin, "some things last". It is only through memories that time can move backwards.

If I got one thing out of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, it was that life is precious, and it is good that we are born old enough to create the memories we will live off of.

Dogfight

2008-08-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching Dogfight, this old movie from the early 90's with River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. That was one of my favorite movies back when I was in high school. I used to rent it a lot back then, and watch it late into the night. But I've never seen it on DVD anywhere and it was by chance that I found it on Netflix, so it's been something like fifteen years since I've seen the thing.

I had liked it, originally, because River was in it and I was in love with him. But then I sort of fell in love with the movie itself. It's a very quiet little movie, and it has all these sweet awkward moments. This was also the movie where I first heard my favorite Bob Dylan song Don't Think Twice, It's Alright. That song became an obsession for a while, all on its own (and, like in the movie, my favorite time to play it over and over was at dawn).

But anyway, what was a shocker for me was that seeing it again after all this time brought back this huge tide of emotion. I could only describe it as being lovesick. Kinda like when you find a really old picture of an ex-boyfriend, or old friends that you will never see again.

I was a real romantic sort of kid back then, and I tended to idealize certain people. So it's not weird to say that River Phoenix was one of my very first loves. And I don't mean in that geeky screaming and crying for a celebrity sort of way. I never saw him as a famous person, really. It was more like I grew up with him, you know? I mean, the first time I saw him was in Stand By Me, and we were the same age, so I didn't see him as someone to have a crush on because that would be admitting I liked boys, and I wasn't ready for that (I did, however, have a crush on Kiefer Sutrherland, because he was older and sexy, so it was safe to like him).

Anyway, I'm not sure when my little crush on River started in earnest, but I do know I would try to watch all his movies, because I loved his acting. River always came off as so honest. No matter what character he was playing, he always seemed to be himself. There was this sense of feeling embarrassed by his performance, because it was like this was a guy that was actually going through whatever emotions or situations the movie called for, and sometimes it was almost like you were invading his privacy by watching. The only thing I can compare it to is watching those old Joy Division videos and thinking "Geez, this dude really means all this bleak shit he's singing about, and it's tearing him apart".

Eventually I did read up on River, and the whole love affair took off. I'd never heard of anyone who was so natural and into animal rights (this was before I got burnt out on that shit in college, obviously). I had this black and white picture of him on my wall right next to a picture of The Pixies and a little picture of Plaza Navona in Italy. So every night for years, those were the things I fell asleep staring at. In the picture he had shoulder length hair falling on his face, and he looked like some sad beautiful angel.

He died when I just started college. I heard about it at the mall, while looking at some earrings in Dillards. This guy I'd gone to the mall with mentioned nonchalantly that he had died of an overdose the day before, and wasn't that just the funniest thing, considering that he was a Vegan and whatever? He was about to laugh, but then he saw the look on my face and asked me what my fucking problem was, it was just another dumb actor that died. Then he did laugh, but this time it was directed at me, because my eyes got all watery. I remember feeling weird because I had had a crush on the guy and this was some sort of date, but even though I didn't want him to think I was ridiculous for getting all upset for the death "of another dumb actor" I couldn't help it.

That day after getting home I went to my room and looked at the picture of River on the wall and wondered what the hell to do. Idolize him as another dead celebrity? At the time, his death was kind of controversial, because people saw him as a hypocrite for always talking about living a pure life then dying of a drug overdose like a dirty junkie. But I didn't want to tear his picture down, and I didn't think he let me down or anything. In the end, I was just really sad. He was such a tremendous talent, and he was MINE, meaning someone of my generation, that was supposed to stand for me and people my age as an artist. I guess that's why a lot of people felt let down, but that was so unfair. All I could focus on was that he was gone, and I would never see him grow up with me and see what he would do with characters that would go through the same situations I would go through, years and years later.

That was such a long time ago. It's years and years later, and he is so much younger than I am now, and he'll always be. Not fair. It was so weird to remember what it was like to watch that movie, back when he was alive and I was younger than he was, and I could look up to him, because I did.

Well, anyway. I recommend Dogfight. It's still a sweet, quiet and awkward little movie, and it's amazing the way River could play a character so full of hurt. When he comes back from the war in the last scene, he has this look on his face that is so broken. You can tell that in the four years he was off in Vietnam he's seen and lived a lifetime's worth, and now he's just so tired. Wow. How could he do that? He was something like 19 years old. It was almost like he knew he didn't have that long.

But maybe I'm just being corny, I don't know. All I know is I loved River, and seeing him again after all this time made me miss all the movies I could have seen with him. Funny, I did end up seeing The Pixies live, and I did end up going to Italy and sitting at the Plaza Navona. But I never got to see River Phoenix again. He'll always be just that black and white picture of a young guy with shoulder length hair and a sad look on his face. Another dead, beautiful angel.

Juno

2008-01-20T11:03:00.000-08:00

This is one of the movies that from the second it starts, you know exactly what kind of story this is. Juno is walking along in a cartoon world, drinking a gallon of Sunny Delight, to the beat of the goofy sweet All I Want is You by Barry Louis Polisar. With just that little intro the tone of the movie is set, and I found it never missed its own little beat.

The best part of Juno, without a doubt, is its voice. I’m now an official Diablo Cody fan. The dialogue is practically a character in itself! Every line made sense without being too darling or indy cool. I especially liked Juno’s friend, for some reason. There are so many teenaged girls that look and act just like that.

Juno and the teens around her come off as real teenagers. Not one of them looked like a stylist spent three and a half hours on their hair and make-up, ya know? Also, although Juno and her friends were not exactly the most popular people in school, they also weren’t the outcasts another kind of movie would have made them into. Why must teen movies always be so extreme? I don’t remember any one cool person in high school, or any one dork everyone picked on. That just doesn’t happen. Even Juno’s pregnancy was handled realistically. I loved the scenes where she’s walking down the hall with her big belly, and all the kids sort of part down the middle, looking kind of freaked out, but that’s about it.

If I had one problem with the entire story, it was with Vanessa. Why was she so undeveloped, especially when everyone else came off as real? Is Jennifer Garner a really bad actress or what? The only thing I can think was that Diablo wrote this character through the eyes of a confused little girl who saw Vanessa as an idealized female, the kind of person she felt safe giving her child to. I could understand that, I guess. I loved the way Juno would stare at her. It was almost like a crush, really. I wonder why other movies never really play on this theme. Girls idolize older girls the way boys idolize older boys, but you hardly ever see that in film.

Besides that, I really did like the inclusion of Mark and Vanessa. It was nice to see what Juno and her friends could turn into. Mark was such a great character, my favorite of the whole film. He was the first I’ve scene that truly felt like someone of my generation brought to life on-screen, for good or bad. Ours was a generation with very real talent that sort of imploded on itself too soon, so that we all felt a little taken advantage of by commercialization. I mean, remember the models on the runway back in the 90’s, in $800 dollar flannel? Ugh. Mark showed all that frustration with every word he said, every movement he made. He just looked so tired. You could feel how desperately he wanted to befriend Juno and prove he was cool, if only because he sorta got stuck acting like a teenager. Vanessa, meanwhile, was stuck trying to be an adult (did ya catch her standing there in her faded Alice in Chains shirt? Didn’t you think the name of the band was somehow appropriate?)

And then there’s Juno. I love this girl. I love the fact that she’s small. Like, she’s not some ambitious Holden Caulfield character. Hell, she’s not even quite Thora Birch in Ghost World. She’s just this smart kid that likes to listen and play music and has a confused crush on her best friend. It is only the fact that she’s in a grown up predicament that makes her have to think and do grown up things. I love it when Mark and Juno start to really connect, and you’re led to believe they have all this stuff in common. But then he tells her he’s not ready to be a father, and instantly the connection is broken. She pulls away from him with this horrified look on her face and yells “Yes you are! You’re… OLD!!!”

Ellen Page has this amazing face. She was the one good thing about Hard Candy. There’s something about her expression that looks hurt but hopeful at the same time. Her exchange with Vanessa at the mall, and later with her dad, just break your heart.

Michael Cera is good too. Something about the way he’s lit in this movie makes him look like some sort of angel in jogging shorts. But like I said, every actor is really good in this (except for Jennifer Garner, the jury’s still out on her). So when this happens, I can only think that it’s because this is one hell of a good script.

It is unfortunate that practically the whole movie is given away in the previews. Why the hell do they do that? But it’s still worth it to go see it. You walk out happy and with this insane need to buy the soundtrack. Buy it, it’s amazing too.

There Will Be Blood

2008-01-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

There Will Be Blood

Paul Thomas Anderson is always an interesting director and Daniel Day-Lewis is always an interesting actor, so it came as no shock that this was one hell of an interesting movie. What came as a surprise, however, is how layered and subtle it all was. Even now, I still find it hard to say what exactly the film was about, because all these ideas still come whenever I think about it.

Basically, I think the movie is summed up in the title. I haven’t read Oil! by Upton Sinclair, but from what I gather the movie was only loosely based on the story, so I don’t feel so bad if I totally miss the target when I say the movie is about blood ties, as in family, religion, and, well, violence.

The character of Plainview (played by Daniel Day Lewis) is incredibly multi-layered. He is anything but a “Plainview”. Here is a man who in the beginning of the film adopts a child (H.W., played by Dillon Freasier) orphaned by the death of his father at an accident in one of his derricks. There is a touching moment during the first half hour of the film when he stares at the child as he sits in a little crate all alone and crying. They both seem so alone in the world, and when the child finally grows comfortable with Plainview and starts caressing his face, one is led to believe they have established a father and son bond grown from circumstance and loneliness. This idea is further cemented when years pass and the two work together as a sales team, pitching oil the way old-school door to door salesmen pitched encyclopedias.

But the fact remains that they are not “blood”. Neither, as it turns out, is Plainview’s long lost half-brother, who shows up in the second half of the film just as Plainview is growing prosperous. God, who also makes a play for Plainview (in the form of Paul/Eli Sunday) also comes up empty handed. Plainview does end up getting baptized, but only to further his ambitions.

Speaking of Paul/Eli Sunday (played by the wonderful Paul Dano), here is a character who is almost Plainview’s opposite. Here is a character who has “blood” (a loving family, belief in God) yet he forsakes both his biological father (this is one ugly scene) and, in the end, God himself.

Or is it that “blood” has forsaken Sunday and Plainview? Sunday, so confident in his life goals of building a prosperous church, fails to see how his ambition tears apart everything he already had. Meanwhile, Plainview’s lack of “blood” makes him doubt those who loved him, including a “brother” who was a loyal friend, a community who believed in him, and the “son” that grew to love him.

It’s interesting that the one pure and good character in the entire film is Mary, Sunday’s youngest sister and later H.W.’s wife. She is the only female character in the entire film, and she is also the one the oil derrick is named after. It’s almost as if by naming the derrick after her, Plainview seems to inherently understand that it is not what he does that is bad, it’s the way he goes about his life that is his downfall.

The movie is a beautiful thing to see. It looks great, and the soundtrack works so well that you don’t even realize that the first part of the film has no dialogue. Sound is a character in the film. There is the amazing soundtrack (by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood), first of all. Then there is Plainview’s speaking voice, a thing that needs to be heard to be believed. Day-Lewis got the tone by listening to recordings from the late 19th century, and also from watching Huston’s the The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Finally, there is the moment when H.W. loses his hearing in an explosion. All sound is gone, and it is as if only then can you finally see what is going on with the characters.

Wow, what a film. Anderson keeps growing as a director, quite a feat considering he started out so strong in the first place. But you can see a definite maturity from film to film. From Boogie Nights to Magnolia, to Punch Drunk Love to this (I don’t count Hard Eight because supposedly it was re-edited against his wishes), there is a definite loss of innocence that is just heartbreaking. I look forward to more of his films.

I'm Not There

2007-12-14T18:59:00.000-08:00

I knew it was a bad omen when, on buying the tickets to I'm Not There, we were given this little pamphlet for the movie, where it sort of explained what we were about to see. Weird, to get Cliff's Notes for a movie that's supposed to be a video version of Cliff's Notes to Bob Dylan's songs, which (if you believe the hype) are supposed to be Cliff's Notes to Bob Dylan himself.

What?

Yeah, exactly.

If you're one of those geeks that has every single Bob album, has seen every documentary on him and read every book about him, you might get some fleeting sense of satisfaction during the 800 hours this movie seems to last. Maybe.

If, like me, you're a fan that has the pivotal albums and some minor works, and is somewhat familiar with his legend, then this'll happen… You'll spend one minute of this movie smirking slightly at the stuff you do get (ha ha, the chick feels she can't breathe, you're an idiot babe, it's a wonder that you still know how to breathe… oh, and ha ha, there's a tarantula walking around the screen, that's the title of his book, Tarantula, etc, etc.). The other 799 hours and 59 minutes you'll spend guessing you might have had some fleeting sense of satisfaction if you'd been one of those geeks that has every single Bob album, has seen every doc on him and read every book about him. Maybe.

If you're new to Bob, then you'll probably never want to hear of Bob Dylan again.

Shame.

In a nutshell, this movie is a bad never-ending version of The Beatles' Free As A Bird video.

Don't get me wrong, I loved the Free As A Bird video, with its clever use of reference. I got a lot of it, and what I didn't get didn't matter anyway, because the visuals and the song were great. And I LOVE Bob Dylan. The man is THE modern day poet, right up there with all the historical greats. He's fun, too. For all the heaviness in his writing, the man comes across as a mystery, someone who's never quite there.

But if you're gonna go out of your way to make a movie about Bob Dylan, shouldn't he be there?

Actually, the idea behind this mess was actually pretty fresh and interesting. I mean, I absolutely hate movie versions of bios. Stuff like Ray and Walk the Line should have been on Lifetime, right? So with Dylan, who is such a legendary contradiction, it made total sense to not go the traditional Behind the Music route, and break his character down into his different personas. And I loved the addition of his fake roots, the Woody Guthrie character that the folkie Bob invented for himself when people asked him about his past.

But this mess never made it past its interesting concept.

First of all, it's unbearably glib. Somewhere between masturbating to Dylan memorabilia, Todd Haynes forgot this was supposed to be a movie, not some sort of Jeopardy- The Bob Dylan Edition. Somewhere in the not so distant future I see Mr. Haynes pausing this DVD every 2 seconds as he waits for his friends to answer, in question format, how the images correspond to some obscure liner note. He's no doubt practicing his best Alex Trebek impression as I write. Ugh.

There was nothing exactly wrong with the actors playing the parts or anything. They all (with the exception of Richard Gere, who was so pointless I chose his screen time to go to the bathroom) were OK, especially Ben Whishaw and Cate Blanchett, who at least got to say some of Bob's legendary good lines. But really, they were all caricatures, at best. At worst, they were BORING. There was nothing for them to do but be little puzzle pieces to a big picture that never came together.

What's weird was that of all the little parts, it was the story line between Heath Ledger and that actress that played Jane Eyre that was at all interesting. Could it be because that was the only part that was actually fiction? Although supposedly the Blood on the Tracks album was all about Bob's bitterness concerning his divorce, Bob himself has never confirmed this. In his typical fashion, he has always both denied and agreed with this theory. So here Haynes actually had to speculate and write a damned script. Too bad he didn't think to do the same for the rest of this mess.

But anyways. Because I spent 24 bucks and what seemed like 800 hours of my life, I feel the need to salvage some of this waste. So I will say that I liked the part where Cate's version of Bob shoots into the folkie crowd with a machine gun (oh… if only!). I thought Julianne Moore did a spot-on impersonation of that glib bitch Joan Baez. I liked the colors Todd used to film Christian Bale's version playing to the Christian crowd at the Christian center (it has the look of an old VHS video... ever notice how old video turns every color into cafeteria food shades?) And I liked it when Lyndon Johnson said "the sun is not yellow, it's chicken!" Oh, yeah, and I thought Cate Blanchett playing Bob was pretty hot (but that has nothing to do with the merits of this movie as much as with my little perversions, like the way Tim Curry only turns me on when he's wearing fishnets and a leather jacket… but anyway, I digress).

Bottom line, this movie SUCKS.

Please don't watch it. If you love Bob, listen to his music and watch his docs. He managed to make a fictional legend of himself without any help from this crap.

Unhappy Feat

2007-06-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy, where do I start?

Honestly, Happy Feet is like 4 different movies all put together, none of which is very good.

Ok, so there was the animated version of Moulin Rouge (1), the cutesy Disney-ish little outcast baby animal flick (2), the save the environment cautionary "let's appeal to the hippies" deal (3), and the creepy Twilight Zone part that just threw everything off completely (4). Add in the long, LONG video-game tie ins where the penguins just slide and slide and slide and you have a complete mess.

All I want to know is WHERE THE HELL WAS THE EDITOR?!!!

And not to be a total dick, but I thought the penguin was too fat to pull off any fancy footwork. Yeah yeah, I know, what a hater, but it's TRUE. The way the cartoon was drawn, that whole tap dancing thing just had no visual or audio flair. You know, watching this thing reminded me of that damned documentary "March of the Penguins". I remember sitting in the theatre bitterly realizing I had just spent good money to see a big screen version of TV static. Here, where the thing is ANIMATED, they still couldn't make a bunch of penguins standing in a blizzard any more interesting.

What happened here?

Oh yeah, and what was the point of the narration? Was this supposed to be the cartoon version of Morgan Freeman sitting around on his fat ass again? I mean, the story didn't even bother to tie in the whole Lovelace-becomes-a-real-preacher-by-telling-the-legend-of-Happy-Feet thing.

Ahhggg!!!

This was awful. Just Godawful.

Meet the Robinsons

2007-04-08T00:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I vowed to review all movies I see in the theatre, so (sigh) I'll have to own up to having gone to see this one. In my defense, it was only because I took a little kid with me, and HE picked it, honest.

Speaking of kids, wow, what a great audience! No bullshit with them. When they like something that's going on onscreen, they LIKE it. They laugh their little asses off, and then one of them will scream out "Hey, I LIKED that!!!" Pretty badass.

Oh, but when they don't... first, there's this dangerous squirming sound, like ants getting ready for an attack. Then one or two of the bolder tykes will escape into the aisle murmuring "ahhh..." as he/she runs off to the exit. Once that happens, someone starts to cry. Man, they don't make movie critics like kids, seriously.

Well, with this movie, it didn't get to that point, but it got dangerously close. There was a lot of running around in the aisles, and some sniffles, but we all got through the movie able to more or less listen to the dialogue.

Actually, I'll admit it wasn't that bad. I mean, it had a heart, something I didn't expect, considering the previews. Deep down in that mess, there was a story there somewhere.

That was kind of the problem, though. I mean, the movie LOOKS like it was made for little, LITTLE kids, and those were the types in the theatre. We're talking kindergarten little, and those folks can't handle anything too intricate, I don't think (the squirming all took place over the more convoluted aspects of the story.) The movie only worked for them when it was all frenetic and kid funny, as in characters making silly faces and that sort of thing. There was a lot of that in there, and that carried over well for the younger ones in the crowd.

But what about us not so young ones? Well, like I said, the movie had heart. I'm a sucker for orphans, first of all, and the beginning of the film had a sort of Roald Dahl-esque feel to it that I thought was promising. I loved the idea of this genius orphan that was just ahead of his time and misunderstood, and I was totally into the addition of his bitter little roommate. How clever is that?!!! I thought that character in particular hit a nerve that should be explored a bit further in kid films, because I think there are a lot of Jan Brady-type kids out there that can sort of bond with a character that is not only overshadowed by an older and more talented child, but is actually hurt by that child in some way. It was cool that in the end of the film, Lewis realizes how his actions unintentionally hurt poor little Goob, and then went out of his way to help him out.

I wish then, that the film had been made a bit more linear so that that storyline could be clearer. The introduction of Lewis's child from the future was really confusing and messy. I mean, what? When he first appeared, I thought he was just some annoying asshole out to destroy Lewis's science project or something. It didn't help, either, that he was the sort of character that I absolutely despise in modern kid movies. You know, the type that's specifically put there for the older, "cooler" kids' benefit, complete with annoying looking clothes and hairstyle, spewing stale "cowabunga man!" type crap. HATE that.

To be fair, Lewis's kid from the future wasn't exactly like that, but his appearance and the way he was introduced didn't quite work. I'm sure there could have been a way for the older Goob to sabotage Lewis 's project, and then for Lewis to somehow figure things out and then follow Goob into the future (he was a genius after all, wasn't he?). Then, in the future, he could have made a cool friend (his son) and go about discovering his wonderfully strange family (the Robinsons were quite fun I must admit).

The movie had a solid theme: "keep moving forward". It went very nicely with the idea of Lewis getting over the fact that he was abandoned by his mother (in a sense, him not approaching his mother was a way of letting HER keep moving forward too) and with Goob getting over messing up that baseball game, and his bullied childhood (yeah, I loved the way that subject was very carefully touched upon, too).

You know, looking over what I've written so far, I think I actually liked Meet the Robinsons more than I thought. OK, maybe I did. But I think I fell in love with the POSSIBILITIES of it more than the actual movie.

Cuz like I said, the audience squirmed a lot. There were some really annoying "let's put this scene in so we could sell the video game/ride/dolls. Ugh. And though I'm not the type to ever suggest a movie should be dumbed down for a kid, I did think the plot was pretty convoluted, and having all the future characters revealed only at the very end did a disservice to the little ones. I think they would have understood the villain better if they knew it was Goob from the get-go. Same goes for the Lewis-meets-his future-son thing. Sure, time travel is pretty heavy stuff anyway, but why make it even harder for them to get it? And I mean, they've all heard of that stuff, and may have even seen Back to the Future. I just think the story would have worked better if the characters were clear from the very beginning, although the element of surprise actually did work for the minor characters, like Lewis's future wife and parents. That was actually very nice, sort of Wizard of Oz in that, when he goes back to the past, you see all these familiar faces and you're like, "Oh, YEAH, cool!"

Well like I said, the movie wasn't bad, but definitely works better as a could have been than what actually was. And by the way, I asked my nephew what he thought of the film, and his review was "I really liked the dog!" There you go.

Julio Iglesias, Mike Tyson and Blades of Glory

2007-04-02T18:08:00.000-07:00

We bought tickets to "Blades of Glory" with plenty of time to kill, so Daniel and I headed on down to Amoeba Records to buy some tunes. As usual, I marched straight to the Easy Listening LP's, hoping against hope to find the elusive "Hey!" album by Julio Iglesias. And this time, it was there!

I've been looking for that LP for YEARS. Finally, it is mine, to be framed and displayed in some prominent place in my home.

Why on earth would I do that, you ask? Because the cover is PRICELESS. If you haven't seen it, I'll describe:
Picture a full-on headshot of the marvelous Julio in all his sunburned glory, complete with Neil Diamond-ish hair and perfect white blocky teeth peeking from a come-hither smile. Then, right next to his mouth, is the word "Hey!" as if he's sittin right next to you at the Electic Q in Juarez.

YAY!!!

It's wonderful, trust me. As a true cheese connoisseur, I know of what I speak.
So anyway, as we headed back to the theatre, Julio safely wrapped up in a bag under my arm, I figured the day couldn't get any better than this.

Oh, but I was wrong!

Seated just in front of us and to the right was none other than Mike Tyson, tattoo faced and all!

As the lights dimmed and the film began, I took the movie in with a different perspective. I couldn't help but think that I was watching it with Mike.

I mean, to all of us, this was a comedy. To him, it must have been a sort of inspiration. Was he thinking, in that little brain of his, such thoughts as "maybe I should get in the ring with a girl!"

I dunno. But the Chaz character became a symbol of Mike Tyson for me. You know, this kid from the wrong side of the tracks that makes it against all odds, then eventually loses it due to bad behavior in the ring (or... uh, RINK).

On that end, although the movie was pure joy, I thought it could have explored this angle a little more. Like..
.
1. I would have liked more of a father-son bond between the coach and Chaz. It was obvious they connected. It would have been sweet to see some man hugs between those two. He'd never had a coach, and the coach had never been appreciated. Both had dreams of glory... they were a perfect match. The love was THERE.

2. Same for Jimmy and his rich dad. Some of their backstory, including the other Drago-like athletes he had adopted would have worked. I'd love to have seen their little family reunion. It would have been a good opportunity to make fun of those trendy Mia Farrow-Angelina Jolie bullshit "families" (I mean, COME ON, do you REALLY believe they'll all get along when they get older, and they'll spend their days sitting around all U.N.-style, holding hands and singing Kumbaya or whatever?). It would have been fun to see them all together.

3. WHERE THE HELL WAS TONYA HARDING?!!! I kinda thought that when Chaz was explaining all his tattoos, he would point to the biggest one and say something about how that represented his true love, "the one that got away", and there would be some flashback to the torrid love affair he'd had with Tonya, and how they split up because she didn't skate fair or something. Then, in the end when the blond chick throws her pearls on the rink, Tonya could appear and kick her ass, then go flying into Chaz's arms. Somehow, I got the sense the writer's had thought of this, but for whatever reason they were unable to find her or something.

Oh well. The movie was pretty good, on the whole. Coulda been better, though.

I wonder what Mike thought?

Good ole Mike Tyson. Whenever I see "Blades of Glory" on its endless future TNT re-runs, I'll always think of him...
And Julio Iglesias.

Hey!

Borat- Cultural Learnings of America to Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

2007-03-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm a hype-whore, so of course I went to see Borat- Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Actually, I remember seeing a preview months ago, before I knew anything about it, and thinking I'd see it just for the title (it's perfect, isn't it?) That and the thong.

The movie was really fun. Squeamy, uncomfortable fun. I felt, while watching it, much the way I feel when I'm in Vegas and I see people way more drunk than I am. You know, like suddenly someone is naked peeing on the carpet or something, and you laugh cuz that shit is FUNNY, but it also makes you feel kinda bad. Like, you KNOW some poor maid is gonna have to clean up the piss later, and SHE won't think it's anything to smile about.

But anyway, I guess now that some of the people in the movie are embarrassed or suing or whatever, I can kinda feel for them. They're not movie stars or anything, and I'm sure whatever they signed off on wasn't like the reality show people's contracts. They're the maids that have to clean up the piss. Not exactly a cool position to be in. And all because they didn't know how to deal with a caricature. Know what I mean?

I guess my take on the movie is how odd manners are, and how polite Americans are, for the most part. I think one of the major reasons the people in that movie come off so strange is that they're trying, you know, TO BE NICE. In our crazy multi-cultural society, we're all taught to not judge other cultures. So OK, yeah, the people in the movie come off as pretty stupid for actually thinking that someone like Borat would be acceptible in some other country. Condescending, even. I can see that. But I still felt kinda good about that chick that tried to teach him how to use the toilet. I don't know, I just did. And I had to grin when I saw the car salesman brush off the "how many gypsies can I kill with this car?" type questions. I mean, we've all been in sales, at one time or another. We've all pretended to smile at some jerk's lame "jokes" just to make a sale.
Come on, man, we're capitalists. You don't have to agree with someone, let alone like someone, to do business with them. It's why we all get to live together the way we do. Otherwise, we'd be back to "Whites Only" or "No Girls Allowed!" or some other crap like that. If anything, I think the movie proved Americans are pretty tolerant, overall. Most of them, anyway.
But I'm getting too political, and that wasn't my point. What I thought was interesting was the whole manners deal. I mean, really, what would YOU do if you had to deal with someone like Borat, like at work or something? I must sheepishly admit I'd probably just nod half-assed to whatever he was saying and then get the hell away, like much of the people in the movie. And yeah, if I was on the subway and he tried to kiss me on the cheek, I'd probably push him away and run off too.

Wouldn't you?

Zodiac

2007-03-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Now, as you know, I'm totally into 70's movies. So in a way, it's like this movie cheated by looking EXACTLY like all the movies I love.

It was pretty uncanny. The film got the feel and the mood DOWN. I mean they even got the lighting and the colors right. And the long, dragging moments when nothing seems to happen except this general blah sort of deal. And not to be all un-PC or whatever, but I like the fact that it was all sort of sexist, without any major female characters or women with any kind of authority walking around the office. I don't know, it just seems like movies now a days go out of their way to make things all PC regardless of the time or event the movie is supposed to be covering, and it sort of makes everything fake (I mean, did you notice how in Pearl Harbor no one was smoking? What the fuck? Have you SEEN movies of that time? Or rather, could you even see anything through that thick cloud of smoke? Give me a BREAK...) Bottom line, a major female character would have added all that romantic tension crap, and sometimes that's just not where you want to go.

(On that note, though, Chloe was amazing. In one little move of her eyebrow, that girl said all that needed to be said on how the females in that story were feeling. So there!)

But anyway, back to the review. In a way, I thought this was a true horror film. There's this shady monster that you never quite see, and he does these unspeakably evil things (the stabbing scene, there in broad daylight without the camera once moving away was one of the ugliest, if not THE ugliest murder scene I've ever had to sit through) and he never gets caught. And it was also a classic vampire movie, because Zodiac manages to suck the life out of all the major characters.

I really wish more directors approached horror in this angle. I mean, in literature, it's done all the time. If you read short horror stories, you'll notice what's scary about them is what you'd least expect. I mean, "scary" doesn't have to be some hairy monster running around amidst out of tune violin scratches. Sometimes the scariest thing could be something as simple as looking in the mirror and not recognizing the thing that's staring back at you.

I think that was the point of Zodiac. Not bad, all in all.

United 93

2006-06-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

I just saw "United 93". I didn't want to see it at all, but it was my mom's turn to pick the movie, and she said "Quiero ver la del avion". So I saw it. Actually, not really. I just couldn't get into it. The whole time I just sat there freaked out, looking at the faces of the people around me watching it. They looked freaked out too. So this isn't a review or anything. All I have to say is "too soon". But it did bring back a lot of memories. Everyone has memories of that shitty time. These are mine.
The alarm rang at around 8, but I decided not to get up just yet. My carpool girls, Hilda and some quiet girl whose name I forgot, would pick me up around 9:15, so I had time to lay around. So I went back to sleep, but then the phone rang. It was Hilda.
"Jesus Vanessa, you still asleep?!"
"Yeah..."
"Get up! We're under attack! They just blew up the World Trade Center!"
"What?"
"THEY BLEW UP THE TRADE CENTER! TURN ON THE TV!"
Hilda sounded weird. Too excited. It was too early to be that excited. I turned on the TV. They were showing what looked like an action movie. The buildings were all burning. I got out of my room, and went over to the living room. My Nino and Nina were watching the news too, and my nina was on the phone, talking to my mom, or my uncle.
"mira nada mas, mija." and "Tu mami y tu tio estan bien"
Well, why wouldn't they be OK?!!
I stood there and watched the news with them a while, then I went to my room and watched it there, too. At some point I got dressed, and at some point my carpool girls drove up. I left to work.
Hilda was still worked up. She talked in an excited tone the whole way. She had the news on in the car, they kept repeating the attack, over and over. The quiet girl just sat there next to her, quiet. Then she started crying. She didn't make a sound, but she was shaking. Hilda changed the station, 'til she found music. The music sounded oddly fake.
"Put the news back on" the quiet girl said.
"Yeah, I think you'd better" I said.
Hilda kept being excited. She would repeat whatever the news guy said, like a parrot. The quiet girl kept quiet. And I sat there in the backseat, my mind in random mode:
We shouldn't be going to work. They wouldn't count this against us. I don't wanna go to work. No, we shouldn't be going. Maybe they'll close for the day, and we could go home. I wanna go home. My Texas home. Yeah, I wanna go there. Texas... Where's the president? I hope he's OK. Geez, wasn't it just like yesterday that Aaliyah died? I remember I was so sad... weird. I'm gonna be so sad later. I know I am.
We got to work, the Verizon Call Center in Santa Monica. It's a tall building, and we all looked up at it before we entered.
All the tvs were on inside, and we hardly got any calls, and one of the managers, Armando, came up to us and said "I want you to know I Know it sucks that we have to be here."
There was a lot of contact. We all sort of bumped into each other all the time. We'd touch the arm of the person we were talking to, pat each other on the back. We all called our families on our breaks, then huddled together in front of the tvs.
After work, when Hilda drove us home, we were all quiet, and we stared at the downtown buildings when we passed them. Near home, I saw a helicopter in the air, pointed it out, and Hilda said really loud "they're not supposed to be flying!" and we stared at it the rest of the way home, 'til we couldn't see it anymore.
I called Daniel when I got home, and we were tense, and picked a pointless fight. I went into the living room and watched the news with Nino and Nina, and I cried for the first time, cuz I saw the people jump off the burning buildings, and it finally hit me. It really hit me.
The rest of the week was pointless, really really pointless. That weekend my cousin Connie and I went to Uptown Whittier to walk around, just so we could be around people. Everyone made eye contact. It was important, so important to make eye contact with everyone. We stood on a street corner to cross the street, and the car stopped in front of us was one of those lowrider deals, but it had one of those little flags on the front. We stared at the flag, then looked at the driver. He was a little cholo dude, and he made eyecontact with us, too.
"Hey, God Bless America, girls. Right?" he said.
"Yeah man. God Bless America." Connie and I said.

The Godfather I & II

2006-06-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

Oh boy did AMC mess me up this weekend. I mean, I had all these plans to clean the apartment top to bottom, cook a bad ass dinner, and blah blah blah. But then, I turn on the tv in the morning, and, wait, what is this? An all weekend Godfather marathon?!! Wha...ttt?!!!
Well, there you go. But let me tell you, getting a sore ass from sitting around watching I & II over and over again (they WERE also showing III, thankfully, so I did manage to get my cleaning and cooking done doing those 3 hour stretches) was worth it. Man, those movies are so... So Raven!
You know, it's weird how they never get old. Like, NEVER. You really could watch them over and over again and find new things all the time. And you know, the first one came out in '72, the second in '74 (when I was born) so I've pretty much been watching those things all my life.
Let's see. My love affair started at birth, cuz I know my mom went to see Part II over and over again in the theatre, and I think she took little newborn me (to the horror of the other people in the audience, who were then pleasantly surprised by the fact that I only cried twice; once to get my mom to lift me up so I could see the screen better, and again when Fredo got shot).
During my elementary school days, I got to watch the movie every time the networks would show it on tv, complete with a full narrative provided by my mom and my uncle, who then answered all my little girl questions, like "By having Apollonia meet Michael with a deformed jaw and love and accept him as a husband anyway, do you think Puzo meant to show us that an Italian woman would be better suited as the wife of a Godfather, because she would know from the get-go of the monster within, mommy?" or "do you think this a parable on the isolation of immigrants in the USA, Tio?". You know, typical nosy kid questions.
I read the book when I was around 12, and that's when I discovered that the movie I'd seen on network tv was totally edited. I mean, wowe, NO WONDER I'd always liked Sonny! That little scene with him and the bridesmaid Lucy was the first sex scene I ever read (page 18, I still remember!) and it's still one of my favorites. By the way, I read the book so many times it tore in half, which ended up being a good thing, because it made it easier to fit in front of whatever textbook I was supposed to be reading in class.
Finally, when we got a VCR in middle school, I got to watch the unedited version, and I fell in love all over again. I got to see Sonny bang Lucy up against the wall, got to see the bloody horse head, Apollonia's boobies, and Moe Green's shot up eyeball. YAY!!!
In high school, The Godfather III came out, and... well, I went back to renting I and II again, over and over, until the memory of that horrid mess (Michael joking around with spiky hair? What the FUCK?) thankfully faded from my memory.
So see, it's been a lifelong love affair for me. Every two years or so, I go through my little Godfather marathons, and I always find a new little theme to explore. Like, what do these films say about the role of women? Immigrants? Family?
And then there's all these new little details, like hey! when they kill Luca Brasi, the camera moves behind a glass screen with a fish design (sleep with the fishes, my friend), oh and speaking of old Luca, he's SO the inspiration for The Usual Suspects' Keyser Soze. Think about it. And ever notice how right before Mike pops the cop and the other dude at the restaurant, you can hear the sound of a train, kinda like, his last chance to jump on the train to a normal life is leaving him behind?
Finally, there's always a new character to focus on. When I was little, I was all into Sonny and his big... uh, HEART. Then in high school I went through my Vito phase, old and young. See what I mean? Hell, I've even gone through a Tom phase! And then there's Michael, who's always been the love of my life (he's one of the reasons I only like guys with dark hair and big eyes, he's who I named my Ken Doll Mike after, who got to fuck all the Barbies until I unfortunately lost his head, and he's the reason why if I ever have a little boy, I'm gonna name him Michael, even if Michael Sprankle sounds kinda weird when you say it out loud).
This time, however, it was all about Fredo for me. I dunno, I guess maybe I'm going through a loser phase or something, cuz something about him just tore my heart in half. And you know, that actor John Cazale was really something else. I mean, think about it: the dude only made 5 movies before he died in '78, but Jesus, those were THE 5 movies:
The Godfather I, The Godfather II, The Conversation, Dog Day Afternoon, Deer Hunter.
Wow. Oh, and he was engaged to Meryl Streep. If ever anyone can claim artistic and personal perfection...
Anyway, geez, what a geek I am. I mean, look at me go on and on about this. And the sad thing is, I could probably keep going, but I'll stop. Just one last thing, though. I've noticed, like I said earlier, that everytime I watch these flicks I bond with a character. Right now I'm a rather unfortunate mixture of Tom/Fredo. You know, a goofy outsider. Who are you?