Category Archives: Film

About The Artist

Posted on February 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I finally got around to seeing The Artist. It was very good, and while I expected that, I didn’t foresee it being as accessable as it was. The thing about a movie like The Artist is that the hype surrounding it makes it seem much artsier than it actually is. I mean, it is art. It is a silent film, an homage to film, a French film, but overall just a really good movie. It replicates effects that in the wrong hands could be rote and obvious. Here’s they’re not. The Artist is genuine in its excitement and love for film. It gets shit right.

Jean Dujardin is brilliant as George. He’s a perfect representation of the silent film era’s leading man. A face that’s handsome, but incredibly expressive as well. I love the subtle history lesson that plays out in his trajectory. So many silent film era stars were foreigners and because of their lacking English skills couldn’t make it in the talkies. In the movies final moments we hear Dujardin speak in his thick French accent and the entire movie clicks, making sense on an entirely different level. His dynamic with Berenice Bejo, his pride and her softness, his desperation and her hopefulness, is also kind of perfect. I love a movie that does nothing unexpected and still manages to surprise and elicit real emotions from the audience. The Artist does that.

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Wherein I Realize I Do Not Have Anything in Common with My 5 Year Old Self

Posted on January 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

As I’m sure many are aware, Disney has been ransacking their vault as of late and re-releasing their older films in theaters as 3D features. I generally hate this kind of thing, an obvious ploy for money on former glories. Not to mention my disdain for 3D, which in general adds absolutely nothing to the “movie experience.” As much as I’m underwhelmed by all of this (and Disney World), I am a huge fan of Disney animated films. Especially Beauty and the Beast, the film Disney is currently exploiting. A film I was so obsessed with as a kid that I, no joke, knew every word spoken in it. I would run home from school every day, pop it in and sit there reciting every word uttered by every character, main or background, having the time of life.

This weekend, I and a group of friends decided to take a walk down memory lane. So we went, and in a theater filled with children relived the magic. Except sometimes things aren’t as great as you remember them. It turns out Beauty and the Beast makes no fucking sense. How things happen, how we get from plot point A to plot point B, I could not wrap my head around it. I mean I still love it, because you can’t help but love the things you adored as a kid. But wow, what the fuck? Below is a list of questions and concerns that came up as I watched, but was obviously too stupid to note as a kid.

  • Belle likes to read and that is what singles her out as weirdo. I wish Belle was beautiful, liked to read and also crafted dolls out of belly button lint. That’s a real weirdo.
  • Le Fou and Gaston have a real homoerotic thing going on.
  • Mrs. Potts looks way too old to have a toddler aged kid.
  • Where is chip chipped as a human?? And are all those other teacups Mrs. Potts’ as well??
  • That horse is way too fucking skittish. Three fucking times it throws its passenger overboard. Time to get a new fucking horse.
  • Why doesn’t Belle try to escape? And then she refuses to have dinner with him, but goes poking around where he asked her not to? This bitch is asking for it.
  • Those wolves won’t let up.
  • How does Belle’s dad ever get behind her and Beast hooking up? Dude kidnapped him, then kidnaps her. I would be really worried that my kid had some severe case of stockholm syndrome.
  • Cogsworth is losing pieces left and right. Aren’t those his organs?
  • Toward the end, Le  Fou threatens Lumiere with a torch, but he’s been lighting his own wick the entire film.
  • Gaston jumps to the conclusion the Belle is in love with Beast before ever knowing that Beast can like talk, walk, emote, etc. etc. He just assumes she’s got some secret bestiality bug.
  • Why does human beast flair his nostrils? (This I noted as a kid and it freaked me out then as much as it does now.)

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We Start Out Lofty

Posted on February 25, 2011 | Leave a comment

A weekend ago a group of us formed intentions to go to the Coconut Grove Arts Festival. Unfortunately, we were sidetracked by the food stands of a smaller arts fest for a local church just feet away from the real thing. By the time we had scarfed our many fried delicacies and then waded through massive crowds of people, we couldn’t will ourselves to pay $40 for what would amount to a little under an hour of strolling and saying, “Oh, that’s nice.” So we went to the movies instead. 

Selections were underwhelming, but after deciding none of us were really in the mood to think real hard, (I will blame the “itis” that comes along with fried food for this) we opted for Just Go With It, a romantic comedy featuring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler. In it, a rich plastic surgeon (Sandler) fools women into thinking he’s a neglected married man, so he can have sex with them, but not be required to offer anything more. The plan works for him until he meets the woman he decides he truly wants to marry. Due to some confusion that follows the usual tropes of a romantic comedy, however, he must enlist his office manager, Jennifer Aniston, to pretend she is the wife he is divorcing.

We all know how this ends, but at that ending I was left thinking about the 23 year old women (Brooklyn Decker) whom falls for Sandler. There is a sweetness and naivety to her character, emphasized by her love of ‘N Sync and referencing to the 90s. Her age is, in fact, her biggest flaw. Vapid depictions of the 20-something set are nothing new, however. Irresponsible and inexperienced youth set against wisened and weary of the world 30 (and more) year olds who shake their head at us. I get, “You’re not a typical 25 year old” so often, it makes me wonder what a typical 25 year old is. Maturity is variable, and yet there are no real serious looks at people in their 20s. When there are, they’re too wistful and mystified.  We are more than our uncertainty, elastic skin and boy bands.

Admittedly, my 20-something friends and I did skip an evening of art for fried food and a subpar romantic comedy. But still.

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Stones Will Never Know

Posted on February 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

The other day, as I ran to and fro gathering things in a rush and flurry before I ran off to work, my sister offered me a CD to listen to on the drive there. It was the sound track to Talk to Her, the 2002 film by Pedro Almodovar that won him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. I don’t tend to listen to sound tracks in the car, as the majority are instrumentals and it’s already difficult enough for me to stay awake that early in the morning. I popped this in anyway. Indeed, much of the songs are pieces that serve to set ambience or a mood. Still, I couldn’t help, but note how well crafted every detail of an Almodovar film is, the music especially. It puts you in the mood of the film, in the pain and the torture of it. The following clip is of Caetano Veloso, a Brazilian singer, and his painstakingly beautiful rendition of Cucurrucucu Paloma. You may have heard the song before, but never as it’s sung here, for this film.

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The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema

Posted on January 30, 2011 | 2 Comments

About a week ago my grandmother flew in from Nicaragua. She’s an elderly lady with a limited range of movement so a lot of her mornings are spent in front of the TV watching old Spanish language films. In particular, she likes to watch films from “La Epoca de Oro” or the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. These were the black & whites of my youth, and invariably they take me back to watching old movies about forbidden love, war and poverty at my mom and dad’s feet.

During WWII the film industry of many European nations and the United States suffered due to rationing and their focus on war propaganda. Because of this Mexico was able to dominate markets in Mexico and Latin America and become a powerhouse of film. The quality of these films is often staggering, but the stories are the best part. Not content to imitate, the films of this era are full of Mexican identity, showcasing (even if they were often played by white actors) the indigenous population and paying attention to the middle and “low” class neighborhoods of Mexico City. They ranged in genre, from romances to tragedies, and were the kind of film that made icons. One such icon was Maria Felix, known as La Doña, who’s hard beauty and killer eyebrows made her a legend to her dying day.

My favorites would have to be the comedies as they remind me the most of my childhood. Cantinflas (Mario Moreno Reyes) is perhaps one of the best known characters in all of Latin America. Resembling a Charlie Chaplin in style, (and Charlie Chaplin himself once called him the greatest comedian alive) Cantinflas was a parody of the impoverished campesino, an everyman that got into all sorts of bizarre scenarios. Watching him was a real treat when I was a kid, there was nothing difficult in Reyes’ portrayal of what would have been considered a low class peasant. It was his films, however, that would eventually lead to film that took a more serious look at the impoverished people of Mexico.

There’s a sense of nostalgia for me in watching these films. Watching Maria Felix in Doña Barbara or Pedro Infante in Nosotros Los Pobres takes me back to holiday breaks, watching old Mexican movies with my cafe con leche in hand. Pedro Infante was a huge favorite then. Both an actor and a singer, it was his rendition of Las Mañanitas that my father used to play for me on every birthday. Known as the idol of Mexico, it’s with him that the era started and with his death that it ended. While I’m not a huge fan of people that look back too much, I will say that they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

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