Un Chien Andalou (1929)

“A Recorded Dream”

By far the strangest film to play on my laptop, besides 2girls1cup, Un Chien Andalou is Spanish filmmaker’s Luis Buñuel's first film.

The film does not have a plot. Instead, the narrative is that of some sort of dream sequence involving a young woman and what appears to be her lover. It opens with the young woman in a very intense scene, and what follows are sequences that unfold and probably have a meaning, but they’re all just open to interpretation. The silent film also didn’t include any dialogue cards, making it hard to comprehend the scenes. But that wasn’t the only problem. Being Buñuel’s first film, it very much indeed started his career in experimental filmmaking and set the style he would have in his later films. It was very well received and was a favorite during the avant-garde movement in the 1920s.

It set the standard for avant-garde, art, or experimental films, and is a very huge influence on cinema in general. This fifteen minute short film is sure to move you and I give it a 5 out of 5.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

“There are no clean getaways”

Hell no; especially when you’ve stumbled on a drug deal gone wrong and stole about 2 million dollars in cash.

If people stole money from me, I’ll hunt them down until they’re dead and also until I got my money back.

In No Country for Old Men, Josh Brolin plays Llewelyn, a hunter who stumbles upon a suitcase full of 100 dollar bills. He returns to the scene of the crime and his hunted down by the Mexicans who were the ones that set up the drug scene gone wrong. Soon after, he is being hunted. Not by a man, or a woman, not a human. What’s hunting him down is pure horrifying evil, in the form of a man.

No Country for Old Men is another great story from Joel and Ethan Coen, otherwise known as the Coen brothers, otherwise known as the “two-headed” directors. They tell a simple cat-and-mouse game from Hell, but there’s so much suspense and little dialogue that really turn this simple chase movie into a hardcore thriller. Little basic techniques create such a tense setting that same to have affected the audience more than Llewelyn.

The acting was also very superb. I have to praise Javier Bardem’s amazingly insane performance as Anton Chigurh. Chigurh was apparently the leader of the aforementioned drug deal and was the one hunting Llewelyn. It was him that brought alive the chase of the scene. It was his monstrous, yet very calm, attitude and personality that did the trick and tensed every single individual who saw the movie. Other great portrayals were from the other main cast, Tommy Lee Jones as Sherriff Ed Tom Bell, who had this attitude that he had given up on saving his community due to the increasing violence the world has taken; and Josh Brolin as Llewelyn, who never gave up, had courage built up, and always stood up for himself and never backed down.

This film is really truly a great story of a cat-and-mouse game told through the four eyes of the Coen brothers. It shows that they simply can’t make a horrible movie, even if they tried to. With terrific acting, a wonderful script, and pitch-perfect directing, I reward this film with a 5 out of 5 and you can own it now on DVD.

127 Hours (2010)

“Every second counts”

Another Oscar movie. Another good review.

Whenever you’re put in a very hard situation, like getting your arm stuck between a wall and a boulder, you cannot waste time on anything at all. There’s a lot things you need to gather and think about and then you need to take action. If you don’t… well then you’ll probably just die.

127 Hours is the latest film from critically acclaimed British filmmaker Danny Boyle. It’s a true story of Aron Ralston, a hiker, who sets out to the Utah desert without telling anyone where he was going and gets stuck in a very narrow crevice with a boulder smashed on his right arm. After getting stuck, Ralston, who was played by the ever so talented James Franco, starts to rethink his past life and mistakes and has some mild visual hallucinations. If you know Ralston’s story, then you obviously know how it’s going to work out.

This film explores the last hours of someone’s life. What’s even more extraordinary is that these last hours actually happened. According to Ralston, the film was a very true account of what really took place and that it felt like a documentary. I like how it didn’t take a psychological direction, in other words where they explored Ralston’s psyche and he started going crazy. Instead, Ralston was able to keep a little sane; he had this little one on one in interview with himself to his Canon camcorder, but that’s okay. There was also a humor side to it, and James Franco’s silly facial expressions and comical antics really do lift the spirits of the audience who have cringed with claustrophobia. That’s another thing, if you don’t like bugs, are claustrophobic, and squeamish, you’ve been warned.

I love the photography of this film. Also the editing. It was very fast and looked like a little kid’s YouTube video. Also the way the desert was played out as a character created a huge good conquers evil scenario. Ralston’s philosophy about his fate with the boulder in the last act really supports my analysis. One thing about this movie is the way it was able to play out with most of the film being Ralston stuck with the boulder. To me…I was skeptic. But, because of the buzz it’s getting, I knew that it had to have been perfectly told and directed. I mean it’s Danny Boyle.

I have to praise James Franco for his performance. He was just spectacular, funny, charismatic, his usual goofy self. I also have to praise the cinematography and the directing. The hallucinations and flashbacks add to the plot and create a more dramatic story then “It’s about a guy who gets stuck in the desert”. Nobody’s going to watch that.

I give the film a 4.5 out of 5 and it’s out now in theatres.

The Ring (2002)

“Before you die, you see the ring.”

I would rather have my life flash before my eyes.

Seeing the ring must be horrible. I wonder how it feels to die. I wonder if it hurts. It’s very mysterious, and very creepy. The nature of it all is mysterious and creepy. This reaction can also be said for The Ring, a movie that explores a really pissed off girl.

The film starts off with two teenage girls watching TV one night. The night turns to a uneasy setting when one of the girls mentions a tape that when you watch, you are called on the phone and a voice says that you’ll die in seven days. This changes the other girl’s attitude for the night, and by the end, she is mysteriously killed. Naomi Watts, the aunt of the murdered girl, Katie, is asked by her grieving sister to find out what happened to her daughter. So Watts’ character, Rachel, who happens to be a journalist, sets out along with her former lover and father of her child to find out of the workings of the tape and where it originated. But she doesn’t time; she too saw the video.

The Ring started off right in the middle of the action. It didn’t show the two girls at the start of the night, it didn’t introduce any character officially, it just showed them in the middle of their conversation just prior to Katie’s horrifying demise. After the opening scene, the tone stuck until the end. It was a dramatic look at a woman’s attempt to solve her niece’s murder, but it suddenly turned into a fight for survival. To me, this sudden turn of events can be interpreted into a classic MacGuffin, where a plot element that catches the character’s attention (Katie’s mysterious death) fades out, but comes back to the climax (the realization of the young girl in the well).

The little gore in the film proves yet again that blood doesn’t drive a person to scream and be afraid. If you were ever scared of this film…bravo. If you weren’t, then you have succumbed to Hollywood’s unnecessary method of scaring their viewers, which by the way is sad and tragic; I would hate to be you.

The Ring will get in your skin and start to crawl underneath it. It’s very chilling and does a perfect job of having such a supernatural murder mystery. I give the film a 3 out of 5 and it is out now on DVD.

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

“What is a ghost?”

Everybody loves a good ghost story. The best ones are the local ones; the ones that took place in your house, your school, or even your neighborhood. But the scariest and most complex are the foreign ones. They revolve around scandals…and orphanages.

In The Devil’s Backbone, a little boy Carlos goes to an orphanage in Spain during the Spanish Civil War in 1939. There he meets a mean janitor, a bully, and a ghost. The ghost is a subject not too discussed between the kids, but they know all about it. Some even know way too much. This frightens the staff and orphans, as well as the bomb that was dropped in the center of the orphanage. The bomb didn’t explode, but it is ticking. The janitor, Jacinto, was a former orphan, but now that he’s older, he now works there. He despises the place and knows of a stash of gold hidden in the orphanage, so he manipulates the one-legged headmistress so he can gain access to the vault.

The film was written, directed, and produced by the great Mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro, who is known for his political allegories and dark subject matter. While the film doesn’t revolve entirely on the ghost or bomb, the two themes really support the whole plot and the latter part of the film. Upon first encountering the ghost, Carlos is told by him “Many of you will die”. With the bomb in the courtyard and war escalating, the ghost’s prediction seems very accurate. Meanwhile, the real danger is taking place in the late hours of the night.

The title is taken from a Spanish superstition. A child born with a “devil’s backbone” is deemed to be alone, parentless, or a “nobody’s child”. It reflects the main antagonist during the second half.

The film had great scares. Any scene with the ghost was very eerie. The sight of the character is frightening enough to send a shiver down one’s spine. Another scary thing is the way the kids toy around with the ghost story and joke about it. They’re little orphan kids who are isolated; they are only half-aware of the war and what’s going to happen to them.

All in all, the plot of the film is a little unnoticed, as new things start to get picked up, especially in the second half. It’s almost a wonder of what it is. Del Toro really knows how to perfectly intertwine horror with romance, producing a very eerie gothic thriller. I give the film a 4 out of 5 and it’s out now on DVD.

The Sixth Sense (1999)

“I see dead people”

Little kids; they’re so annoying. Some of them actually have intelligence and are pretty reasonable. Some need hitting, some need a hug, and only a few, like 1%, need guidance…because they see dead people.

The Sixth Sense was M. Night Shyamalan’s first film in which he wrote, produced, and directed. The film follows a little boy Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment, who knows way too much. He’s a bullied kid and he starts to get counseled by the equally troubled child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crowe, played by Bruce Willis. Each character has their own problems in life, but Dr. Crowe gives up when Cole reveals his deep dark secret.

The movie was a real shocker, from the unforgettable opening scene to the equally unforgettable climax. Shyamalan really does create a very eerie atmosphere around this one. It’s a ghost story with an unusual character in the backdrop of an unusual Pittsburgh neighborhood. Shyamalan’s great directing skills however really paid off with the young Haley Joel Osment. He wasn’t some child star who wanted the attention. He was in the I’m-going-to-act-natural attitude and it really worked. I think he went off a little too unnoticed by the general public. Another great acting contribution is Toni Collette, who played Cole’s struggling mother Lynn. She deals with every parent’s worst nightmare, adding more depth to this thriller.

The whole story is very real to every kid. As a kid, you start to realize the hate the other kids in school have. You always say that you’re the outcast, the lonely kid, and that you need attention. Cole really played that part right. He was the kid “making up stories”. I don’t think this was an intention by Shyamalan, but it’s what I gathered. Also, the kid’s relationship to his psychologist was a bit ironic and reversal; Dr. Crowe seemed to be the one feeding off Cole’s indirect advice. It helped though in the end and played the part of the resolution.

The Sixth Sense is a creepy movie that gives you goosebumps at the visuals. It’s played out very well and with the good cast, script, and direction, I give the film a 3.5 out of 5. You can buy the film on DVD now.

Happy Birthday Darren Aronofsky

I try to live my life where I end up at a point where I have no regrets. So I try to choose the road that I have the most passion on because then you can never really blame yourself for making the wrong choices. You can always say you're following your passion.

-Darren Aronofsky

A very happy 42^nd birthday to one of my favorite directors Darren Aronofsky, director of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, and Black Swan.

He is arguably the most critically acclaimed independent filmmaker of the 21^st century. I just hope that as he gets older, his films get better (but what can be better than Black Swan?!).