Dear Friend,
CLAIM YOUR FORTUNE!
I wish to approach you with a request that would be of immense benefit to both of us. I am a moviegoer based in Cambridge, United States. I want you and I to make some fortune out of a situation that I am obviously left with no other better option. The issue that I am presenting to you is a case of the favorite cinematic venue, THE BRATTLE THEATER, needing to continue its operations. It is the situation that the theater is independently owned and run (one of the final in the region known as the Harvard Square) and relies on the support of patrons and community. This requires actively raising monies and seeking donations to fund its mission of repertory programming and films preservation. As a patron recruited to aid in this endeavor via movie-watching marathon, or watch-a-thon, I am now faced with a problem of getting a trusted person who I will make the beneficiary that I would share this fortune of movies with. And, as well as being of great service to the cause of the cinematic and popcorn arts, according to the law such contribution to this fortune is supposed to be bequeathed to be of deductible benefit to that person in regards to government taxes.
As I am not very sure of getting your consent yet on the issue, I would employ methods of persuasion, referring you to expositions on the importance of the theater and perhaps escorting you to a screening of film at THE BRATTLE THEATER itself, at an occasion of mutual convenience.
For explanation, examine the verbiage selected by the Brattle Film Foundation, and that chosen by my own self.
At this point I want to assure you that your true consent, full cooperation and confidentiality are all that are required to enable us to take full advantage of this golden opportunity. You may process the required transaction, either in the form of a pledge of support per movie observed (simply a few $US per film), or a single donation amount, in complete security, at the following internetwork location...
MY FIRSTGIVING.COM DONATION PAGE
I will appreciate your urgent response in this regard. The window of this opportunity shall close at the end of the day of the third of December. Thanks for your anticipated cooperation. You can as well reach me on [the email].
Yours faithfully
p.s. If you would like to share this fortune with others, the receipt of this message authorizes yourself to extend the invitation to them as I've made it to you, with the requirement of featuring the same details and interlinked resources.
Monday, November 30, 2009
CYBORG SHE
site | trailer | New Japanese Cinema @MFA
Thumbs sidewise for several great ideas that, unfortunately, weren't properly mixed and stitched together, resulting in a clunky and meandering narrative that's not satisfying in any of the genres it attempts to straddle.
This is a goofy scifi/fanboy fantasy romantic comedy from Japan, an answer to that question that's been nagging you for decades: what if the Terminator in JUDGEMENT DAY was a hot chick who became John Connor's girlfriend? AN answer, not necessarily a good or correct answer. SHE's about the relationship a 20-something university student develops with a cyborg girl that his future self builds and sends back in time to protect him. It seems to subscribe to a BACK TO THE FUTURE treatment of time travel, which allows time jumpers to change the history that created them. Unfortunately, the film doesn't do anything particularly cool with this. It DOES play with more time than you'd expect, showing you how the cyborg uses her abilities to become a force for good in the past, and apparently survives to become repaired or rebuilt as herself six decades later, and even remains intact another few decades to inspire another time traveler.
Overall, the movie delivers some consistent calculated romantic comedy smarminess and laughs, but not enough to make up for the lagging and poorly connecting story. There are maybe two "magic" time traveler moments, but they would benefit seriously from stronger writing and better editing. The story unfolds as if it was written as the movie was being put together, from start to finish, with each new scene or chapter added on to the previous one with not quite enough thought put into how it ought to set up for the next. In the end, whether it tries to or not, it ends up being a little MY SUPER EX GIRLFRIEND and a little AI with a pinch of WEIRD SCIENCE.
The visual effects are very good (there's a massive disaster scene that totally surprised me), altho the cyborg v. humans fight/smack scenes should have been way better choreographed.
*SPOILER* The "magic" trick ending should have been much better and cleverer. It reminded me of the really magickal pro/epilogue of PARASITE EVE, at least it reminds me of how I remember it. In EVE, the evil intelligence claims to know all about the life of its host, and attempts to prove it by sharing intimate information that only she and her boyfriend would know. However, the boyfriend actually turns out to know more about his relationship with the possessed girl than the evil does, which tips the scale of things. In CYBORG, the cyborg visits her creator in his youth on two different occasions, once on his birthday in 2007, and then on his birthday in 2008. What I believed/wanted the explanation to be was that the earlier visit was made by a later/older cyborg, and the second visit was made by the newborn cyborg. The cyborg's claim regarding her year of origin is a clue to this. However, the film actually has the first visitor be a future human, not a cyborg at all, while the second visitor is the actual cyborg. Granted, this is basically a completely unpredictable ending, which might count for some points on some moviegoers' scorecards, but in my opinion it's a very unsatisfying, just for the helluvit, ending. This is the part that most feels like a rip-off of A.I., even though it sort of turns the Pinnochio story into a time traveling bit of sleight-of-hand.
*SPOILER* The other "magic" bit is when cyborg takes her young creator to revisit his home town one last time. He explains that the town that he knew as a child was destroyed in a flood and that the present day town is completely different. She urges them to go anyway. When they arrive, she transports them back in time to his childhood. He finds himself and spies on him depositing some little boy treasures in a secret hiding place. This sequence is sweet, but it doesn't contribute to any other part of the story. There's a LOT of potential in this visit, but it's another lost opportunity.
Keep on keepin on~
Thumbs sidewise for several great ideas that, unfortunately, weren't properly mixed and stitched together, resulting in a clunky and meandering narrative that's not satisfying in any of the genres it attempts to straddle.
This is a goofy scifi/fanboy fantasy romantic comedy from Japan, an answer to that question that's been nagging you for decades: what if the Terminator in JUDGEMENT DAY was a hot chick who became John Connor's girlfriend? AN answer, not necessarily a good or correct answer. SHE's about the relationship a 20-something university student develops with a cyborg girl that his future self builds and sends back in time to protect him. It seems to subscribe to a BACK TO THE FUTURE treatment of time travel, which allows time jumpers to change the history that created them. Unfortunately, the film doesn't do anything particularly cool with this. It DOES play with more time than you'd expect, showing you how the cyborg uses her abilities to become a force for good in the past, and apparently survives to become repaired or rebuilt as herself six decades later, and even remains intact another few decades to inspire another time traveler.
Overall, the movie delivers some consistent calculated romantic comedy smarminess and laughs, but not enough to make up for the lagging and poorly connecting story. There are maybe two "magic" time traveler moments, but they would benefit seriously from stronger writing and better editing. The story unfolds as if it was written as the movie was being put together, from start to finish, with each new scene or chapter added on to the previous one with not quite enough thought put into how it ought to set up for the next. In the end, whether it tries to or not, it ends up being a little MY SUPER EX GIRLFRIEND and a little AI with a pinch of WEIRD SCIENCE.
The visual effects are very good (there's a massive disaster scene that totally surprised me), altho the cyborg v. humans fight/smack scenes should have been way better choreographed.
*SPOILER* The "magic" trick ending should have been much better and cleverer. It reminded me of the really magickal pro/epilogue of PARASITE EVE, at least it reminds me of how I remember it. In EVE, the evil intelligence claims to know all about the life of its host, and attempts to prove it by sharing intimate information that only she and her boyfriend would know. However, the boyfriend actually turns out to know more about his relationship with the possessed girl than the evil does, which tips the scale of things. In CYBORG, the cyborg visits her creator in his youth on two different occasions, once on his birthday in 2007, and then on his birthday in 2008. What I believed/wanted the explanation to be was that the earlier visit was made by a later/older cyborg, and the second visit was made by the newborn cyborg. The cyborg's claim regarding her year of origin is a clue to this. However, the film actually has the first visitor be a future human, not a cyborg at all, while the second visitor is the actual cyborg. Granted, this is basically a completely unpredictable ending, which might count for some points on some moviegoers' scorecards, but in my opinion it's a very unsatisfying, just for the helluvit, ending. This is the part that most feels like a rip-off of A.I., even though it sort of turns the Pinnochio story into a time traveling bit of sleight-of-hand.
*SPOILER* The other "magic" bit is when cyborg takes her young creator to revisit his home town one last time. He explains that the town that he knew as a child was destroyed in a flood and that the present day town is completely different. She urges them to go anyway. When they arrive, she transports them back in time to his childhood. He finds himself and spies on him depositing some little boy treasures in a secret hiding place. This sequence is sweet, but it doesn't contribute to any other part of the story. There's a LOT of potential in this visit, but it's another lost opportunity.
Keep on keepin on~
Friday, November 27, 2009
35 SHOTS OF RUM (35 RHUMS)
site | trailer
Thumbs sideways for being lovely, and full of footage of city railways, but incredibly standoffish with the audience (altho I personally find that an alluring hook).
What do I mean by standoffish? Well, the film seems built/intent on playing it coy as far as giving up its secrets, its story. Primary among those secrets, the history and relationships of the members of the unconventional family we are introduced to...
We meet a father, the driver of an urban commuter rail in Paris, and his daughter, a college student who shares a flat with him. They take sweet and thoughtful care of one another. In the opening of the film, we see that they've each bought a rice cooker for the kitchen. When they get home, the father is the first to unveil his present. In a kind of response, to let her father glow a little in her appreciation, the daughter hides her purchase away in her bedroom.
We meet their neighbor from the penthouse upstairs, a slick fellow who travels a lot for work, and seems to have some lusty designs on the lovely daughter. We meet another neighbor, an older woman, a cab driver, who has a very familiar and perhaps needy attitude in her relations with both father and daughter. The film follows these people's separate lives for a few days, with little actual interaction. These days lead up to a big night out, a concert outing arranged by the cab driver, something she wants them to do together the way they used to, "as a family." The night goes sideways, however, when their car breaks down in the pouring rain on the way to the concert. They take shelter along with a couple of other drenched passersby in a nearby cafe. When the music starts we learn just how things are (or seem to be?) as members of our little party pair off to dance.
There's not a lot of plot driving the film. It's much more about meeting these people and learning about them thru their interactions with one another. Kind of like RACHEL GETTING MARRIED with a smaller family and not quite as constrained in time.
My feeling is that what I see on screen is only a very small sliver of a much larger, complete film. That the filmmakers might have started with this complete film, and as if playing cinematic Jenga, removed piece after piece until what remained could barely, artfully efficiently, stand on its own. And in those vital remaining pieces, there are some lovely cinematic moments, intimate. The dancing in the cafe is almost embarassingly... close. You can feel the electricity between partners and the reactions of the onlookers. And there are the trains. If you just go with them, the view from and of the rails can be hypnotic, mesmerizing, and maybe get you thinking about life and lives as tracks, paths, junctions, choices, and consequences. Not a romp, not a thriller, not your typical fare. However, for me, perfect for a Sunday night flick (which is what it turned out to be =).
*SPOILER* The title of the film, 35 SHOTS OF RUM, is taken from a barroom story that the father and his friends mention. It's a celebration ritual, apparently, associated with an old story, or perhaps a feat or record. It comes up twice, actually, first when his friends consider it, in honor of a friend's retirement, and second when he himself completes the ritual, in honor of his daughter's wedding (apparently to sketchy-boy, which, given what we've seen of him, is difficult to approve of). However, apropos of this film, we never actually learn the story of or behind the 35 shots.
*SPOILER* In a sweet end cap to the film, after the daughter has gotten married and left her father's flat, we see the father unpack another rice cooker, presumably the daughter's, from that day long ago, and plant it on the kitchen counter next to his own. I got this scene for what it should be, what it's supposed to be, but continuity-wise, I'm not sure it's correct. I could swear that the cooker that the daughter buys in the opening of the film has an attached, hinged, lid, and that the one the father opens at the end of the film has a free lid, separate, with its own handle, like a garbage can lid. If you've seen this film, please let me know if you remember this being consistent or not. Thanks!
Keep on keepin on~
Thumbs sideways for being lovely, and full of footage of city railways, but incredibly standoffish with the audience (altho I personally find that an alluring hook).
What do I mean by standoffish? Well, the film seems built/intent on playing it coy as far as giving up its secrets, its story. Primary among those secrets, the history and relationships of the members of the unconventional family we are introduced to...
We meet a father, the driver of an urban commuter rail in Paris, and his daughter, a college student who shares a flat with him. They take sweet and thoughtful care of one another. In the opening of the film, we see that they've each bought a rice cooker for the kitchen. When they get home, the father is the first to unveil his present. In a kind of response, to let her father glow a little in her appreciation, the daughter hides her purchase away in her bedroom.
We meet their neighbor from the penthouse upstairs, a slick fellow who travels a lot for work, and seems to have some lusty designs on the lovely daughter. We meet another neighbor, an older woman, a cab driver, who has a very familiar and perhaps needy attitude in her relations with both father and daughter. The film follows these people's separate lives for a few days, with little actual interaction. These days lead up to a big night out, a concert outing arranged by the cab driver, something she wants them to do together the way they used to, "as a family." The night goes sideways, however, when their car breaks down in the pouring rain on the way to the concert. They take shelter along with a couple of other drenched passersby in a nearby cafe. When the music starts we learn just how things are (or seem to be?) as members of our little party pair off to dance.
There's not a lot of plot driving the film. It's much more about meeting these people and learning about them thru their interactions with one another. Kind of like RACHEL GETTING MARRIED with a smaller family and not quite as constrained in time.
My feeling is that what I see on screen is only a very small sliver of a much larger, complete film. That the filmmakers might have started with this complete film, and as if playing cinematic Jenga, removed piece after piece until what remained could barely, artfully efficiently, stand on its own. And in those vital remaining pieces, there are some lovely cinematic moments, intimate. The dancing in the cafe is almost embarassingly... close. You can feel the electricity between partners and the reactions of the onlookers. And there are the trains. If you just go with them, the view from and of the rails can be hypnotic, mesmerizing, and maybe get you thinking about life and lives as tracks, paths, junctions, choices, and consequences. Not a romp, not a thriller, not your typical fare. However, for me, perfect for a Sunday night flick (which is what it turned out to be =).
*SPOILER* The title of the film, 35 SHOTS OF RUM, is taken from a barroom story that the father and his friends mention. It's a celebration ritual, apparently, associated with an old story, or perhaps a feat or record. It comes up twice, actually, first when his friends consider it, in honor of a friend's retirement, and second when he himself completes the ritual, in honor of his daughter's wedding (apparently to sketchy-boy, which, given what we've seen of him, is difficult to approve of). However, apropos of this film, we never actually learn the story of or behind the 35 shots.
*SPOILER* In a sweet end cap to the film, after the daughter has gotten married and left her father's flat, we see the father unpack another rice cooker, presumably the daughter's, from that day long ago, and plant it on the kitchen counter next to his own. I got this scene for what it should be, what it's supposed to be, but continuity-wise, I'm not sure it's correct. I could swear that the cooker that the daughter buys in the opening of the film has an attached, hinged, lid, and that the one the father opens at the end of the film has a free lid, separate, with its own handle, like a garbage can lid. If you've seen this film, please let me know if you remember this being consistent or not. Thanks!
Keep on keepin on~
Thursday, November 26, 2009
AMELIA
site | trailer
Thumbs sideways for pretty much what you'd expect—a well-acted if clunkily edited educational film.
Not a lot to say about this. Entertaining, but not outstanding. A standard, by the book, broad strokes biopic of a historical figure/celebrity. Well-acted, well-shot, alternately clunkily and oversimply edited time-jumping storytelling. The most standout thing about it was the credit title "Commodification Montage Dancers."
Altho her character's accent take a little getting used to, Hilary Swank does that thing she does and disappears into her role. Maybe it's a case of my seeing too many films, but unfortunately, that role is almost a cliche. This will sound silly, but she does everything you'd expect Amelia Earhart to do, y'know? The one unexpected wrinkle is in her love life, but even that gets ironed out in the end.
This is dumb, and has nothing to do w the movie, but only while watching the film, and seeing/hearing people address Swank's Amelia, did I first connect her last name with her destiny. Earhart, spoken: air heart. Is it just me? Does everyone see that as a "gimme?"
*SPOILER* It IS educational. I didn't know much about Miss Earhart except the headlines, and bits of her story were interesting eye-openers. Expressions of her individualist and feminist streak were pretty cool, especially in her unofficial wedding vows, a letter she wrote to her fiance on the night before their wedding. Also didn't know that there was anyone with her when she disappeared. Never hear about HIM, eh? Nice to see Chris Eccleston on the big screen, tho.
Keep on keepin on~
Thumbs sideways for pretty much what you'd expect—a well-acted if clunkily edited educational film.
Not a lot to say about this. Entertaining, but not outstanding. A standard, by the book, broad strokes biopic of a historical figure/celebrity. Well-acted, well-shot, alternately clunkily and oversimply edited time-jumping storytelling. The most standout thing about it was the credit title "Commodification Montage Dancers."
Altho her character's accent take a little getting used to, Hilary Swank does that thing she does and disappears into her role. Maybe it's a case of my seeing too many films, but unfortunately, that role is almost a cliche. This will sound silly, but she does everything you'd expect Amelia Earhart to do, y'know? The one unexpected wrinkle is in her love life, but even that gets ironed out in the end.
This is dumb, and has nothing to do w the movie, but only while watching the film, and seeing/hearing people address Swank's Amelia, did I first connect her last name with her destiny. Earhart, spoken: air heart. Is it just me? Does everyone see that as a "gimme?"
*SPOILER* It IS educational. I didn't know much about Miss Earhart except the headlines, and bits of her story were interesting eye-openers. Expressions of her individualist and feminist streak were pretty cool, especially in her unofficial wedding vows, a letter she wrote to her fiance on the night before their wedding. Also didn't know that there was anyone with her when she disappeared. Never hear about HIM, eh? Nice to see Chris Eccleston on the big screen, tho.
Keep on keepin on~
PRECIOUS
PRECIOUS
site | trailer
Big thumbs-up for an amazing cast and a moving story in a film that wreaks havoc with your heart, sinking or shocking it one minute, and tugging at its strings the next.
I really don't know what to tell you. There's nothing I can write that could do this film justice. Have you seen the trailer? If not, watch it, and you will get a very fair taste of this amazing film. Claire Precious Jones is a 16 year-old girl attending junior high, pregnant with her second child, living with her unemployed mother in an arrangement that lets her mom live on welfare. Her home life, such as it is, is a relentless battle of attrition with her abusive mother. When she's kicked out of school and begins an "alternative" program with a dedicated teacher, she begins to see that her life can be different, changed for the better. As wretched and inspiring as the trailer paints the story of PRECIOUS, the film is even moreso.
Be warned, have some kleenex ready. If there was anything like a recipe to this story, it would have been to heap the worst possible thing you can think of upon this poor girl, then, one-up yourself. Exceeding amounts of mean, hate, wrong, and, frankly, evil, are launched at Precious. That she survives makes her the strongest character you've ever encountered.
An exceptional cast makes it all very real... inspiring in moments and in others, painful, heart-sinking, and horrible. I'm not familiar w the actors, but Precious, her teacher, Miss Rain, and her mother (played by Mo'nique) are flawless, and I hafta say, I never saw GLITTER or whatever that was, but Mariah Carey is a wonderful surprise. Precious's classmates are all excellent, too.
One slight criticism, which is kind of unfair given the scope of the story and the limitations of a feature film—some things seem to happen/unfold too quickly in the course of the film. Examples in the first spoilery paragraph below.
If you can appreciate stepping into someone else's shoes for two hours of serious drama and pain, relieved by hope, kindness, and courage, SEE THIS FILM.
*SPOILER* Precious is in her new program for just a couple days, maybe even only one, when she visits Mrs. Weiss, her family's case officer, to confirm their continued need and qualification for welfare. In this visit, after years of following her mom's script and keeping quiet about the abuse she suffers at home, Precious begins to reveal the awful truth, thus ending their welfare support. The breakthru moment in Miss Rain's class IS powerful, but it seems just a little too soon for her to open up to this woman like that. It IS a completely logical follow-thru, tho, so like I said, it may simply be the constraints of two hours of storytelling. Late in the film, once Precious has moved out and is living on her own, her mother arranges to have a session with their case worker and Precious. It's not clear how much time has passed, but it's only the second time that mom has seen Precious since she escaped her abuse. In this session, her mother breaks down and confesses how she did not stop her boyfriend, Precious's father, from abusing her when she was only three years old. Again, this scene is in the right place, but it just feels too soon. And again, I feel like it may not be fair to fault the film for it because it's a story-time vs. cinema-time discrepancy. I wonder if (creative) editing might fix this. It's not like the pace is relentless, it's just that there's SO MUCH WRONG and its revelation is just... too quick. Too much, too hard, too sharp...
But perhaps that's the intent. There's no denying the impact of these revelations and confessions. Vicious and powerful...
*SPOILER* Consuelo, one of the other students at Each One Teach One, seems to have a history with Miss Rain that's never fully explained. Or, it's clued, but I failed to pick it up. I was sure they must be related, and at first I thought she might have been Miss Rain's daughter, but that doesn't compute. Then, maybe her partner's. Nope. Maybe I just read more into their classroom interactions than there is? Let me know if you know or picked up on enough for a good case.
Thanks to Maggie for buddying up for this.
Keep on keepin on~
site | trailer
Big thumbs-up for an amazing cast and a moving story in a film that wreaks havoc with your heart, sinking or shocking it one minute, and tugging at its strings the next.
I really don't know what to tell you. There's nothing I can write that could do this film justice. Have you seen the trailer? If not, watch it, and you will get a very fair taste of this amazing film. Claire Precious Jones is a 16 year-old girl attending junior high, pregnant with her second child, living with her unemployed mother in an arrangement that lets her mom live on welfare. Her home life, such as it is, is a relentless battle of attrition with her abusive mother. When she's kicked out of school and begins an "alternative" program with a dedicated teacher, she begins to see that her life can be different, changed for the better. As wretched and inspiring as the trailer paints the story of PRECIOUS, the film is even moreso.
Be warned, have some kleenex ready. If there was anything like a recipe to this story, it would have been to heap the worst possible thing you can think of upon this poor girl, then, one-up yourself. Exceeding amounts of mean, hate, wrong, and, frankly, evil, are launched at Precious. That she survives makes her the strongest character you've ever encountered.
An exceptional cast makes it all very real... inspiring in moments and in others, painful, heart-sinking, and horrible. I'm not familiar w the actors, but Precious, her teacher, Miss Rain, and her mother (played by Mo'nique) are flawless, and I hafta say, I never saw GLITTER or whatever that was, but Mariah Carey is a wonderful surprise. Precious's classmates are all excellent, too.
One slight criticism, which is kind of unfair given the scope of the story and the limitations of a feature film—some things seem to happen/unfold too quickly in the course of the film. Examples in the first spoilery paragraph below.
If you can appreciate stepping into someone else's shoes for two hours of serious drama and pain, relieved by hope, kindness, and courage, SEE THIS FILM.
*SPOILER* Precious is in her new program for just a couple days, maybe even only one, when she visits Mrs. Weiss, her family's case officer, to confirm their continued need and qualification for welfare. In this visit, after years of following her mom's script and keeping quiet about the abuse she suffers at home, Precious begins to reveal the awful truth, thus ending their welfare support. The breakthru moment in Miss Rain's class IS powerful, but it seems just a little too soon for her to open up to this woman like that. It IS a completely logical follow-thru, tho, so like I said, it may simply be the constraints of two hours of storytelling. Late in the film, once Precious has moved out and is living on her own, her mother arranges to have a session with their case worker and Precious. It's not clear how much time has passed, but it's only the second time that mom has seen Precious since she escaped her abuse. In this session, her mother breaks down and confesses how she did not stop her boyfriend, Precious's father, from abusing her when she was only three years old. Again, this scene is in the right place, but it just feels too soon. And again, I feel like it may not be fair to fault the film for it because it's a story-time vs. cinema-time discrepancy. I wonder if (creative) editing might fix this. It's not like the pace is relentless, it's just that there's SO MUCH WRONG and its revelation is just... too quick. Too much, too hard, too sharp...
But perhaps that's the intent. There's no denying the impact of these revelations and confessions. Vicious and powerful...
*SPOILER* Consuelo, one of the other students at Each One Teach One, seems to have a history with Miss Rain that's never fully explained. Or, it's clued, but I failed to pick it up. I was sure they must be related, and at first I thought she might have been Miss Rain's daughter, but that doesn't compute. Then, maybe her partner's. Nope. Maybe I just read more into their classroom interactions than there is? Let me know if you know or picked up on enough for a good case.
Thanks to Maggie for buddying up for this.
Keep on keepin on~
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