This is just a masterpiece now as far as I’m concerned. I’ve seen it that innumerable number of times and it just always gets me intensely emotional. I understand it completely, every single image, shot, line of dialogue, action, carries some meaning, and I just get the whole thing, like the whole movie was made only for me, I get it. So many people hate the ending: I think it’s absolutely mesmerizingly beautiful. The score is one of John Williams’ best, if not the best.

In addition to those who simply hate the movie, I can’t understand those who claim that Kubrick (who planned to direct the movie himself, from like decades earlier) would’ve made a better movie. This movie is Kubrick all over to me; it’s certainly more Kubrick than Spielberg. Heck, it’s more Lucas than Spielberg. Check out the complete change of story that lands almost exactly on the 50 minute mark, when we fade out on David being left alone in the woods and fade in on our first look at Gigalo Joe. Kubrick used to do this a lot, off the top of my head in Full Metal Jacket (from the suicide to ‘Nam) and A Clockwork Orange (I think the first is where Alex is arrested). Instead of the usual 30-60-30 minute structure, it’s the 50-50-50 structure (AI’s a little shorter than that).

I was babbling a little after watching this tonight and I stumbled across something I hadn’t thought about before. I was talking about how the visual effects will never age in this movie (and I’m sure they won’t: they’re simply perfect), then I added that the story itself might become obsolete, even if the effects don’t. That’s kind of scary, because all the things this movie addresses could be entirely possible even within a couple few decades. Then, I guess that makes the whole theme of the movie even more hopeful: if you want something bad enough, even if it seems impossible, or even just if people are telling you it’s impossible, just believe in it long enough, and one day it will be possible, because one day, everything will. Such a great movie to watch the same day as Finding Neverland, lol, now my brain is totally screwed :-p

I’m really glad I didn’t review this movie when I first saw it. I knew then that I wasn’t in the position to say what I wanted to say about it, and as time went on, and opinions emerged, I came to think less and less of my initially powerful emotional response. Seeing the movie as slightly hypocritical (using the same fear-mongering techniques Moore claims to be speaking out against), and so one-sided, I started to think I’d really hate it on a second viewing.

I couldn’t have been more wrong. This movie is exactly the “bad” things above, but it’s undeniably full of passion. After watching it today, I couldn’t get it out of my head at all for hours. Finally I came up with a good way to describe what I think is its real significance: it’s like someone made Schindler’s List in 1948. Fahrenheit 9/11 speaks volumes about how f**cked up the world is, that’s for damn sure: but the fact that someone can make a movie like this about events like this only 3 years after speaks even more for at least one of the ways our world has improved.

The other thing I noticed on this viewing was something I was clearly trying not to notice before, such is my love for Roger Avary and Bret Easton Ellis: Avary is (hopefully) going to be directing the movie version of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel “Glamorama,” one of my favourite novels ever that speaks similarly of how crazy our world has become. Written years before 9/11, it nevertheless bears eerie comparisons to the blur between fact and fiction that date now, for me at least, stands as a symbol of. I’m still convinced that Glamorama the movie will be one of the greatest movies of all time; only now, I have to admit, it has a big rival in Fahrenheit 9/11, because, in a way, with this movie, it’s already been done.

And that brings me to why I will probably forever consider this both one of my all-time personal favourites and among the greatest movies ever made: if we survive this period in time as a race, then the events this movies concern are going to go down as some serious moments in history, and there’s simply never going to be a greater presentation; and personally speaking, and I’m sure a few people will be with me on this, when those planes crashed and those towers collapsed, even though I wasn’t exactly familiar with the towers themselves let alone American politics, it shook my world forever, made me realise that every day after was a gift, that we could have all died that day or in the days that followed, and this movie completely encapsulates and gives me a place to release that momentous feeling. I mean, I feel dumb saying stuff like this because I’m not American and stuff, but the fact is, I do believe that America leads the way. I’m a movie buff, that says it all. The thing is, right now, it’s unfortunate that America leads the way, and that’s a bummer. I’m gonna have to come back to this review when the election results come in ‘cos I don’t know where to go after this sentence and this thing definitely needs closure.

Some may find this a little over the top and clichéd, but I revel in extremes and it was a treat for me for a film like Spirit to be released only a few years after my other all-time favourite animation, Tarzan. Everytime I watch Spirit I can’t help but notice how much it resembles Tarzan in places, and, if you believe the stories, it’s easy to explain away these coincidences by imagining Jeffrey Katzenberg slipping hints in about his disdain for his ex-employer. Whatever the truth, I love Spirit all the same, from Hans Zimmer’s super-Hans-Zimmer-ish score, to Bryan Adams’ songs, to the sweeping animation, and finally, even Matt Damon’s narration (though I’d still love the option on the DVD of removing it).

I confess before I even try reviewing this beautiful movie: I’m a Johnny Depp fan, moreso with each movie I see; I’m a budding filmmaker with ideas that some might, and some have, call as bad as Edward D. Wood’s; and I have gender issues. Maybe this is why I like this film, but I would love to just say it’s because it is a great movie, and I think it is.

Performances all round are superb – Martin Landau is a revelation, I don’t think he’s ever played as far from himself as he does in this movie. This is the kind of transformation that today would warrant a leading Oscar. It’s great that he won for supporting. It’s a shame the movie didn’t win more than this and make-up (odd, is this the most Oscars a single character has ever won in a movie?) Johnny Depp is, of course, perfect. And Tim Burton made a great decision for once ditching Danny Elfman’s music in favour of Howard Shore’s. Shore’s opening theme sounds very like Elfman, but later in the movie when things get slightly heavy and poignant, Shore is much more able than Elfman in my opinion.

I really don’t know how to be objective about this movie – but if you ever thought you had a great idea but were afraid to let it out ‘cos you knew that really it was stupid, then this movie will make you want to let it out.

This is definitely my favourite Kevin Smith movie so far… it might have something to do with my own sordid state of affairs though, working in a supermarket and stagnating just like Dante. It’s not the director’s most cinematic of ventures, it could be easily interpreted to a stageplay. Smith’s knack is characterisation and dialogue, and his staple, Jay and Silent Bob.

The Quickstop and video store customers are perfectly sketched in quick cutaways… the egg man, the milk maid, the mother and child – and nothing is spared in granting us the joy of Jeff Anderson’s superb putdowns (“I don’t appreciate your ruse… your cunning attempt to trick me.”) When he finally literally spits on a customer, I can’t help but feel a slight rejoicing in my soul. “Bunch of savages in this town.” His monologues about “You ought to sh*t or get off the pot,” and one that ends with, “If we’re so f**kin’ advanced, why are we stuck here?” are completely perfect and one hell of a wake-up call to anyone in the same situation as Dante. I love the phrase he uses, “This is a life of convenience to you…”

This is the one of only two Smith movies to date (haven’t seen Jersey Girl yet, looking forward to it…) that doesn’t either venture into the surreal (Dogma or Mallrats) or skimp on the characters (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back). Chasing Amy comes a very close second. Though I love Dogma for what it has to say and can just about sit through the other two, I feel like he works best in this reality based environment where he can just drop his camera in and capture real characters. Even Silent Bob’s trademark quip in Clerks. is much more understated and simple than the later ones. And the movie’s in black and white… it’s just gotta be better…

Officially speaking, this is a virgin viewing. I downloaded the movie around the time of its theatrical release but it was either a workprint (‘cos I’m pretty sure there were scenes on the final cut, this DVD, that I hadn’t seen before, all through the movie) or just a version that failed to include the opening (which I had definitely not seen before, the whole Nemo’s mother bit, I never even saw Coral, lol)... either way, at least I’m legal again now, I purchased the DVD, Disney/Pixar have their money :-p

This is the best animated movie ever made to date. I say that even at the same time as maintaining movies like Spirit and Tarzan among my own personal all-time faves, and keeping those two in particular up top of my listing… but technically speaking, as far as animation is concerned, this movie is the all-time best, like, technically speaking, say, Citizen Kane is the greatest live action. The colour is simply incredible, the rendering of the CG imagery, just, everything, is the absolute pinnacle of achievement in this field. This is the first truly worthy recipient of Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. Andrew Stanton certainly received the biggest honour he could have for this movie, but I would add too, that this movie has the second best screenplay of all-time, perhaps even a tie, next to Back to the Future, in my opinion, just the basic use of storytelling… not clever screenwriting like something like Fargo or The Big Sleep or Chinatown or The Usual Suspects, all great screenplays, but this, along with Back to the Future, just tells a story, cinematically, perfectly. Stanton should have received this award too. It owes a lot to Hitchcock, like Back to the Future did (it contains at least two straight homages, to Psycho and The Birds, but plenty more is indebted to Hitch).

It’s beautiful, and when you compare it to Disney’s own releases post-Tarzan, you can understand and appreciate why Pixar have ditched Disney… I cannot wait for their future productions. It’s like they have literally stolen the magic of Disney for themselves… these guys know how to make a “Disney movie”... only now it’s Pixar.

One thing I would add, just a personal note really ‘cos I know exactly the reason the movie didn’t end this way, it just wouldn’t sit with most people… but I felt this on the “first” viewing and again on this viewing. I may be morbid… but I think the movie would be that bit more powerful and would probably still work for the audience it has and yet draw a whole other audience, if Nemo had actually died at the end. If I’d had anything to do with the story sessions for the movie, I’d have been first to argue this to the point of being fired, ‘cos I think it really would add a lot to the resonance of the movie. They make you think he’s dead… they make you anticipate your own reaction to his death, it works pretty well for that… but y’know, it’d just be so moving if he’d actually sacrificed himself, for Dory, his new mother, that Marlon let him go ‘cos for once he was being trusting… it’d just be really complex and true to life and… blah… I just feel it would have made the movie even beyond the perfect it already is

This is going to go up and up in my opinion on each viewing. It’s relentlessly entertaining, and artistically as perfect as possible.

What can I say about this beautiful movie. Robin Tunney is almost too good that it’s unfair – unfair on the rest of the movie. There’s so much here that you’ll need to watch it again, because on your first viewing you will not be able to take your eyes off Robin Tunney. But it’s perhaps only on your first viewing that the ending will have its true effect, kinda like Breaking the Waves, another painful character study. Like Breaking the Waves, the ending might make you cry, a lot, if you’re the crying type. But unlike Breaking the Waves, they’re not really happy tears, or even bittersweet tears, they are utterly despairing ones. I can’t say anymore without spoiling it. I’m convinced that anyone will find something to like in this movie.

Along with High Noon, I put this among the very best Westerns, and to boot it has John Wayne in it. I usually don’t like him, but against James Stewart he is perfect. Really strong characters, a longing for the past, it’s one of those Westerns – the best kind – that’s not just a Western.