Posts Tagged ‘soundtrack’

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Juno

Juno

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

One word review: Phew. ‘cos I really feared hating this about as much as I did Waitress, Knocked Up, and just about any given “oh shit I’m pregnant” ‘comedy’ this side of Junebug. It’s something of a miracle that this won me over. In light of Junebug – seriously, am I the only person on the planet who remembers that movie? – the title here kinda pissed me off to start with, and Ellen Page’s character is even referred to as “Junebug” at various points – since starting this review I discovered this blog entry by the screenwriter which both illuminates that line of thinking and much to my chagrin makes me kinda love the movie even more. All that, and I have an inexplicable aversion to Ellen Page in general – something of a combo of her creepy similarity to Christina Ricci, the unanimous adulation of her in the critical world, and about a million other things.

But by midway, like I said, this pretty much had me won me over. I got over the almost insulting quirkiness of it all – the music (I mean how could I complain anymore when “Piazza New York Catcher” and more by Belle and Sebastian kicks in?), the stupid pipe, the hamburger phone, just the overall feel of it is so Napoleon Dynamite it again makes me wonder if every other movie fan on the planet has just a 2 year memory. Jennifer Garner kinda scared me when she popped up as the adoptive mother but she turns out to be perfect. Likewise Jason Bateman as her husband – after all my whining about the gender thing recently, I found to my surprise that this one does all the wrong things regarding the gender line but somehow makes it work. He does the “typical guy thing”, Garner even tells Page, “he’s just being a guy”, and I should be screaming at this point – but because it comes so believably from the character rather than the author or any collective consciousness lie … it works. As with Junebug, the characters here are all painfully believable, you can latch onto any one of them at any given time. Allison Janney in particular moved me as the pregnant teen’s mother – her little speech to the ultrasound technician is just beautiful.

Like so many movies of the past year, I can’t wait to watch this movie again now knowing that it’s not what I originally expected and feared (it does do the screamy “omg did you know giving birth hurts??” scene, though grr). The best I can say of it, ultimately, is that it won me over, that I can’t wait to see it again, and, like Atonement, I won’t be too bummed by any awards nominations that come its way.

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Magnolia

Magnolia

Sunday, November 18th, 2007

“This is something that happens.”

I really didn’t think I’d get so absorbed by this this time around and there are so many things to write about it I almost opted to wait until the next time since I don’t know if I really have it in me right now. There’s no review here yet, though, which is basically absurd … so what I write now will have to do if only as a placeholder.

I guess I’ve been having one of those late-twenties “mini crises” this week, and I’ve been kind of longing to have an hour or so that just felt like home. Hence Reality Bites earlier in the week, which unfortunately proved to have turned on me in my old age; the OBC of “The Pirate Queen” almost worked last night, the ever-reliable Boublil and Schönberg not trying to innovate a tried-and-true mould like so many others; but it was these three hours that finally brought me down from my grey cloud.

It’s the rain of frogs. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this movie, but that moment, I swear, every time, it’s like an out-of-body experience. It’s Paul Thomas Anderson, director as God, looking down on all those characters – and you, me, all of us too focussed on the stupidest things … Donnie and his braces, Claudia and her self-esteem, Jim and his gun, “and so on and so on” … you, and your whatever – and saying, in the voice of Aimee Mann, “It’s not going to stop ‘till you wise up.” If only it were so easy.

“Strange things happen all the time,” the narrator says – and there are so many shots in this movie of people just looking at each other in sheer abandonment, not knowing. “I don’t know,” says Jimmy Gator, “I don’t know what I did,” to which his wife’s double-edged answer comes, “You should know better!” It levels the whole human race, this movie – united in the simple fact that none of us has a freakin’ clue why we’re here, why we’re still here in spite of ourselves, and why we have the drives we have. All these characters wear their hearts on their faces, it’s like opera, like soap opera condensed, and it’s beautiful.

I love the “almost-POV” shots – over the shoulder, by the hip, behind the butt, just about all variations you can muster – that give you this weird sense of being more in the scene than is comfortable. Of course, the Aimee Mann songs – this movie basically introduced me, and I believe quite a few others, to her, and you couldn’t ask for a better introduction.

One line haunts me – from the barfly Thurston Howell – “It’s dangerous to confuse children with angels,” to which quiz kid Donnie’s response is, “No, it is not.” It’s as cryptic a line to me as that moment in Palindromes when Jennifer Jason Leigh says, “Pedophiles love children …” I really don’t know what exactly the filmmakers meant for this line to mean? But I love the ambiguity and sheer brassiness of it … it practically puts a gun to your head and says, “Talk about this.”

Magnolia shares a theme with Boogie Nights concerning child abuse and I always figured it was Paul Thomas Anderson quite ham-fistedly putting a little of Fiona Apple’s story into his movies, but I have to say, that line seems so at odds with his approach in Nights … I really disliked the ending of the Colonel’s story there, mostly because it was very unclear exactly what he had done but also because it was just too much more misery on top of an already miserable enough third act. But I really love (if that’s the right word) how they deal with Jimmy Gator here. Again, the facts of the “crime” are ambiguous. But even if we’re to assume the worst that Jimmy raped his daughter, I just love the fact of that frog that falls from the sky, again like the voice of God saying, “uh-uh … you’re not gonna leave this hell so easy …” – and I don’t know if those sparks from the plug indicated the start of a fire … but the point is, either Jimmy’s gonna burn or he’s gonna have to face whatever he has or hasn’t done like the rest of us.

To end on a slightly higher note, I’ll just mention that last smile at the camera by Melora Walters. Most personal, beautiful, ending ever. Just thinking about it makes me consider placing the movie above the ethereal Almost Famous in my favourites list. Hmmmmmmm …. nah, not quite, but it’s heart-wrenchingly close.

Hey, how ‘bout that? I didn’t do so bad for “not being in the mood” lol :) It seems fitting to have such a naked stream-of-consciousness style review of this movie, actually.

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Halloween [1978]

Halloween [1978]

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

I tried to write a review of this at the ass-end of my marathon last year but I couldn’t seem to help sounding a little disappointed. I think part of it is that I watched this movie a lot when I was younger and I’m just … sort of done with it – not that overviewing should ever taint a truly great movie; and also that, though it’d be a crazy person who didn’t recognise this movie as a classic, not just of the genre but of all cinema, this is a genre where the classics aren’t always the best.

Watching Rob Zombie’s remake earlier in the year, unlike others I was sure coming to it that there was room for a remake; watching the original now, I couldn’t be more certain. Zombie’s remake is at least as good as Carpenter’s original – making up for what is missing with stuff all its own – and in my mind honestly better for what it adds to Michael’s childhood (even over the short institution scene here, which had totally slipped my mind).

This was the “extended” version I watched this time, and the additions really leapt out at me so rare have I seen it compared to the original cut. Gotta love that pumpkin-like hearing room, and the “sister” scrawling on the wall – I like that there’s suddenly now at least a hint at the relationship between Michael and Laurie here. I think another reason Zombie’s version works better is that we’re more aware of what originally amounted to a twist in Halloween II.

Like I said, it is a classic. The steadicam camera work was not only groundbreaking (I know, it wasn’t the first, so don’t correct me – but it’s in my mind the most notable of the few firsts) but it actually looks as good as any steadicam work done today. John Carpenter’s score, also, is superb – I’d rank that higher in a list of great movie scores than I do the movie in my list of great movies. Donald Pleasance’s Loomis is almost as iconic a figure in horror as Michael Myers, and it’s all down to his performance (one element, I’m quick to add though, which they couldn’t have done better in substituting in the remake with Malcolm McDowell). Then there’s the breathing at the end. The one thing that still actually sends shivers through me. It’d be really great if they released it to the big screen again next year for its 30th anniversary – that could really give it power again. It is a classic. I’m just, I don’t know, always kinda tired of it.

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Carrie [1976]

Carrie [1976]

Monday, October 29th, 2007

The most tragically beautiful horror movie ever made? I think so. That said, I find the more I watch it, the less it even feels like a horror movie and more like the saddest, most painful high school movie that just happens to be punctuated by blood and the supernatural. The only part that always really chills me is Piper Laurie’s eerily joyous performance, and the piano theme that plays at the White house (currently on the playlist on my front page radio thing), most particularly when Carrie falls down the stairs. That music cue just feels completely like death – or rather, the draining of life.

Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek were deservedly (if bizarrely – would it happen today, one wonders?) nominated for Oscars for their roles. I’m always just as taken by other performances, though: Amy Irving and Betty Buckley are particularly noteworthy. I love the way Buckley imbues Miss Collins with this real bug up her ass – I forget if her backstory is detailed in the novel, and I know she tells the story toward the end about taking the leader of the basketball team to her prom but I’m always torn between whether she was the Sue Snell of her time – a reluctant “popular girl” who sympathised with the Carrie Whites – or even worse the Carrie White of her time. There’s a real sense of triumph as she watches Carrie crowned as prom queen; of hope when she talks to Carrie about Tommy’s invitation; an instant confrontational attitude when she talks to the “popular” girls; instant doubt when asking Tommy and Sue about the illfated invitation. Intended or not, she does the all-grown-up bullied girl very well.

Then there’s the music. Pino Donaggio’s themes (far-too-obvious Psycho references notwithstanding, lol) – in addition to the two beautiful songs at the prom (“I Never Dreamed Someone Like You Could Love Someone Like Me” probably the best love song ever) are almost if not more than half the movie for me here. They carry you with Carrie to the depths with her mother at home and the horror of school to the tentative acceptance of the dream of having that final prom dance – and then the nightmare aftermath of even that seemingly impervious dream being shattered like all the rest.

BTW, the DVD of this is much better than I originally thought whenever it first came out. There are no commentaries or anything and the features list reads like just a bunch of promotional featurettes – but the “Acting Carrie” thing combined with “Visualising Carrie: From Words to Images” is really more like a decent behind-the-scenes documentary. Unfortunately it doesn’t actually contain the screentests they talk about … but it’s still really good hearing from most of the cast members years later.

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Grosse Pointe Blank

Grosse Pointe Blank

Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007

“You can never go home again, Oatman. But I guess you can shop there.”

Too many quotes I could’ve begun with here – but that one’s as good as any. Check them out – just a great screenplay.

A slight diversion from the horror due to disk space being required on the Sky+ box, not to mention the last batch being frankly rubbish, lol. I recorded this last week and only just realised as it began … 10 YEARS, man! lol. Amazing how time flies, and amazing how good this movie still looks and feels.

Midway through the movie, I realised, sure I was enjoying it but it did feel like something was missing – call it a combination of the age of the thing and the fact that it’s one of those movies I watched way too much at the time and which brings back lots of confusing pesky me things, lol. But it’s amazing once we get to the reunion itself at the end, how the mood changes – anchored on that shot of John Cusack looking up at Minnie Driver from feeding the baby with a bottle. Yes, that whole scene is too cute for words – but that shot in particular, the look on his face, is just incredible. Likewise, the soundtrack – which is one of the best ever – is great throughout, but it’s in that last 30 minutes that it just soars. The “Live and Let Die” moment early in the movie is genius (Shrek the Third take note, this is where that song belongs) – but “99 Luftballons” at the end is up there with the absolute great soundtrack moments, floating in as it does over Minnie Driver’s wrecked expression.

This is just one of those perfect movies – if it weren’t for the fact my old DVD was a barebones release, I’d be kicking myself for getting rid of it because it is one to watch on a yearly basis if not even more frequently. It’s a real shame nobody had the mind to put together a 10th anniversary collector’s DVD. Roll on 2012? 17? lol.

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The Strawberry Statement

The Strawberry Statement

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006

Another long overdue review … this is going to get random and gushy ‘cos it’s amazing after countless viewings how this one continues to blow me away.

Everytime I watch this I think it’s going to lose something; but, everytime I watch it, it seems only to become more intense, to move and inspire me more. I need to watch it more often. There are so many more great moments in this movie than I ever come to it expecting. First and foremost the one thing that will satisfy almost anybody, I think, is the soundtrack. I’m constantly wracking my brains over why this movie is so hard to find these days (it’s on TCM here in the UK about twice annually, and you’ll find about as many VHS copies on eBay each year too … well worth grabbing, I promise) and the most logical seems to me that there are a lot of expensive music rights involved (including Lennon / McCartney’s “Give Peace a Chance”) (my other most prominent theory is simply to do with how stunningly relevant the movie remains, the cynic in me believing that no major media corporation with all today’s political pressure would want to make available a movie like this … I swear there’s every chance it would lead to uprising if enough people saw it).

Anyway, it’s one of the great movie soundtracks, the easiest comparison is to Cameron Crowe’s selections for his movies … the movie itself actually kinda resembles Almost Famous to me in a lot of ways – Bruce Davison looks a lot like Patrick Fugit in places, and his position in relation to the main story is similar, a spectator swept along by one of the 60s-70s’ many wild waves.

There’s the love story – the way I react to Linda (beautiful Kim Darby, another aspect of the movie that seems to improve with each viewing) and Simon (Bruce Davison) in this movie definitely leads me to believe it’s purely a personal thing, I can’t put into words how I feel my insides churning when these two look at each other … only to say it’s a similar feeling to that I get when talking to my own true love. There’s some amazing chemistry between these two actors. When they’re on the fairground ride, as she mouths, “do you love me?” to CSNY’s “Our House” – that would be the moment I instantly pinpoint as to why I love this movie so much. Well OK, that and the final line – “PROVE YOURSELF ALIVE!” – set to Buffy Sainte-Marie’s “The Circle Game”.

The violence in the end scenes had me shaking on this viewing even more than I did the first time. As with a number of other movies (Soldier Blue and Dawn of the Dead spring to mind), I found myself wondering if I was seeing a different cut altogether. It’s a truly horrifying finale – I finally recognised Bud Cort (Harold in Harold and Maude) this time round, and I think maybe that was a factor in how much the ending got to me – I was a lot more into his character, and watching him in those final scenes is almost too much to bear. It’s the way the movie swishes from the light to the dark – 30 minutes earlier you were laughing at him holding his nose in the presence of a couple of people smoking pot; suddenly his life is on the line for no reason but pure pathetic human stupidity. I think that’s what the movie captures best about James Simon Kunen’s book, the way Simon is a spectator, neither on one side nor the other with any particular level of commitment. Depending on how you view it, the movie arguably highlights the craziness, the lack of direction of the protestors just as much as it does that of the pigs, the politicians, the authorities. Kunen’s book is all about that ambivalent approach to things and as you might have noticed from this site’s URL, I’m all about ambivalence :-P

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Almost Famous

Almost Famous

Saturday, October 22nd, 2005

What? I haven’t reviewed this one yet?!?

This is one of my all-time favourite movies. This viewing was the original theatrical cut, and though I prefer the longer “bootleg” / “Untitled” cut, there’s barely any difference except the length. It’s just, if you love the movie, you just don’t want it to end: that’s why I think the longer cut is better. This movie is pure love to me.

I’m guessing I first watched this movie in 2003 (it certainly wasn’t last year but I remember thinking at the time ‘why has it taken me so long to see this?’) and the biggest reason for my love of it is how much it changed my love of music. In a way, the movie acted for me the same way Zooey Deschanel as William Miller’s sister does for him when he is a young boy – dropping a handful of hints about what rocks, hints that lead to a whole journey of personal and musical discovery. “One day, you’ll be cool,” she tells the 11-year-old in flat-on, talk to the camera close-up before she leaves, one of my favourite shots of this or any movie. If only all of us could have such a big sister. When she reappears at the end, the relief is so palpable. Zooey Deschanel must be onscreen for less than 10 minutes of the movie but she makes a hell of an impression.

I love how real the movie comes across. Of course it’s all partly Cameron Crowe’s autobiography, but even the little things like character names etc come across as very authentic. After first viewing the movie I was entirely convinced that there really was a band called Stillwater back in the Seventies (there actually was, apparently, but they weren’t anything like the Stillwater in the movie).

But most of all, my love of this movie is down to two things – the blending of Nancy Wilson’s score and Kate Hudson’s performance as Penny Lane. When both are working together, like when Penny first meets Russell Hammond, and when she asks William “What … kind of beer?”, and when she’s dancing alone in a post-concert empty hall; this movie touches me like nothing else but love itself. I want to be with these people, I want to sit on that bus and sing “Tiny Dancer”, I want Frances McDormand to be my overconcerned mom, Zooey Deschanel to be my offbeat big sis, I want to be around these people who say things like, “If you ever get lonely, just go the record store and visit your friends.” This movie is as much a part of my life as any movie will ever be, I love it.

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I Am Sam

I Am Sam

Friday, July 29th, 2005

Wow it’s a big week for rewatching things :-)

There are just so many levels to this movie, every scene has a hidden depth. There’s the surface story of a mentally retarded man trying to keep his daughter, but then there’s the prosecution lawyer who sees this situation every day, who knows the stats, that it rarely works out, he’s seen kids ruined by such situations. We’re always with Sean Penn’s character because he and Dakota Fanning just seem so destined to be together, but I love that the film makers throw every obstacle in their way, it’s never quite 100% sentimentalised. Of course the Beatles soundtrack doesn’t hurt. Every character is so fleshed out though. Pfiefffer has a whole career and and son to contend with – the way he looks at his mother when she’s hugging Dakota (Dakota leading the hug) is so revealing. Diane Wiest and her backstory that comes to light in the courtroom; even nearly completely insignificant characters like that played by Mary Steenburgen and another woman have secrets brought out in the courtroom and their reactions are immediately tear-inducing. This movie doesn’t shy away from the pain that spiders out from these kinds of stories. But, beautifully, it also never shies from the happiness and joy that triggers and sustains them. I mean, the pain in this movie is shattering; the joy, though, is overpowering. I forgot about Laura Dern’s character. The first time I saw this movie, I really and truly thought she was finally going to be the one bad character in the movie, since there are no other truly “bad” characters in it (like I said, even the prosecution has reasons). When she brings Lucy back to Sam, it made me die a thousand times over. You suddenly realise how strong Sam and Lucy’s bond is. You just get to know them for seconds, and even if there’s not an ounce of love in your soul, by god they will put love there and make you surrender. It’s overwhelming.

I’ve said everything else in the old review. I was really struck by the depths of this movie this time though. And by the random, unlikely moments that nevertheless come through that complexity. All these subplots, and there’s still time for a pure character/comedy scene of Sam recording his answer machine message, stuff like that. To me that’s the sign of perfection, really, when you can tell your whole story, keep the emotions, keep it interesting, and still throw in those little moments.

1st March 2005:

I’ve had the soundtrack to this movie for quite a long time but I never really knew what it was about.

This movie makes me almost feel bad for loving last year’s Jersey Girl so much: if you thought Ben Affleck had it bad in that movie, spare a thought for Sean Penn here.

I Am Sam is a true weepy that thrives on the strength of its characters and a real moral dilemma – though you’re always on the side of Penn, there are a number of times where you can’t help but feel that no, actually, maybe he shouldn’t be looking after a kid.

Dakota Fanning plays the daughter. This is only the second movie of hers I’ve seen and she’s already among my favourite actresses of today, if not my favourite. She’s not just another Jodie Foster, she’s got something completely different in her eyes; the commentary here offers a little insight into her skill, she apparently grew up around a handicapped aunt, so I guess she brought a lot of that to the movie … I’ll look forward to every single one of her movies from now on (I even have the unfortunate Cat in the Hat in my Blockbuster queue :-P )

And back to the soundtrack – a must for Beatles fans, a great selection of covers that actually link beautifully to the scenes of the film (the intro to “Across the Universe”, for example – a beautiful image in itself of Penn and his disabled friends escorting Fanning across a zebra crossing à la Abbey Road, all carrying red balloons – is an instant favourite shot of mine), including a number of my favourite artists, Aimee Mann, Michael Penn (Sean’s brother) and Rufus Wainwright. Even beyond the soundtrack, Beatles references abound (Sam uses profound metaphors of Beatles history when he can’t come up with an answer of his own; and there’s a great line towards the end, “‘P.S. I Love You’, like the song…”; and Fanning’s character, Lucy Diamond Dawson, is named after… well, guess…)

It’s a great DVD, too: good, informative director/writer commentary, 40 minute documentary, and deleted scenes.

And once again I’m reminded that a Michelle Pfeiffer movie marathon is long overdue. She makes me feel gooey inside :-) This movie came out in the same year as Riding in Cars with Boys and when Michelle Pfeiffer sort of has a breakdown towards the end of the movie, she reminded me a lot of Drew Barrymore in Riding… it’s such a sudden, frank, slice of truth and reality.

A Pfeiffer marathon would at least give me an excuse to watch this one all over again, which I already feel the urge to, listening to the director’s commentary and looking at the movie again as I write this. When a movie’s so good it makes you want the person doing the commentary to shut up, no matter how interesting they’re being, you know you’ve found something special. It’s a future favourite of mine, I’m sure.

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