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Reviews
Rain (2001)
Cotton Mather would've loved it (spoilers)
The acting (particularly by Alicia Fulford-Wierzbicki) and cinematography of this movie are so well put-together that it makes the movie's horrible cliche of an ending that much more painful and embarrassing.
(Here come the spoilers)
Jim's death at the end of the movie is a cheap gimmick that director Christine Jeffs telegraphs from square one. It's a lame, moralizing made-for-TV-movie plot device that attempts to somehow punish the film's characters for their perceived moral transgressions (Janey and Jim's parents' drinking and Janey's experimentation with sex). By killing off Jim immediately after (or during, it's not clear) his sister's first experimentation with sex, the cast and crew of "Rain" come across as a bunch of holier-than-thou moralists. "This is what happens when innocent young children are left unsupervised so the adults can go off and drink and have sex," we can almost hear Jeffs saying while she wags her finger at her audience.
It's not clear if Jim's death is something taken from Kirsty Gunn's novel or if it's introduced in Jeffs' adaptation. Whatever the case, Jeffs ought to have had the sense not to kill off Jim right after Janey's encounter with Cady. The final quarter or so of the movie should be about Janey coming to grips with her encounter with Cady. Instead, Jeffs rips the focus away from an uncomfortable subject by drowning Jim, after which she tries to tidy up the movie with a quick funeral and another cliche, the "driving home in a car after a tragic event" scene. "And after that summer, I was never the same," we can almost hear Fulford-Wierzbicki saying during the film's final voiceover.
It's almost as if Jeffs is afraid to let Fulford-Wierzbicki act out her character's reaction to her sexual awakening, or to show her parents acting out their split on screen. It's an awful way to end a movie, and I can't recommend this movie to anyone but moralizing, condescending types who like nothing more than to see characters suffer for sins that are actually little more than character flaws.
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse (2000)
Must have seen a different movie...
I'm a huge fan of all things French New Wave. I went into this widely touted movie expecting to see a masterful, well-executed documentary about scavengers a segment of society whose struggles aren't often chronicled.
Instead, I got a rambling, unfocused picture that focused way too much on the director herself. Every time the movie started to get good and really engage my interest, Varda would break away from the subject she was documenting either to film herself or prattle away while filming a bunch of trucks on the freeway. What's more, she even saw fit to put in footage where she left the camera running as she carried it, calling the scene "The Dance of the Lens Cap," or some such thing. And while you can make statements that Varda, like her subjects, is using footage other directors just throw away, there's a reason directors don't use that footage. It's almost as if some studio executive has decided to play a prank on snooty French film snobs, handing a camera to a goofball old woman who once upon a time made decent movies. I appear to be one of the few who didn't fall for it.
Get Bruce (1999)
humorous portrait of a tremendously funny man
sure, get bruce is pretty funny, but it trips a bit...the film begins with the typical "bunch of people talking about the subject." this does not work. i found myself bored and thinking i was going to make a big mistake.
"get bruce" is at its best when it shows the subject (a guy who writes jokes for celebs) at work. the scenes where bruce is working one on one with billy crystal, whoopi goldberg, robin williams, et al, are some of the laugh-out-loud funniest things i've seen in a long time. and i don't even like robin williams.
sadly, when all these portraits are done, the directors scope pans out again and tries to make general statements about the subject. here, he again fails. perhaps it would have been funnier had the filmmakers consulted bruce.
six of ten
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Ignorance is bliss
The fact that I knew quite a bit about this film going in spoiled it a bit for me, though I can still recognize its genius. Hopefully films like this will send a message to Hollywood that they don't need to pour tons of money into goofy special effects to scare a modern audience. This film proves something many of us knew as little kids but have since forgotten: The things you can't see scare you the most.
Go see it. Stop reading these reviews.
My Son the Fanatic (1997)
near perfect father-son drama
Kureshi has a way of exploring relations between father and son without being overly macho.
Om Puri is amazing as Parvez, and Farid does a brilliant job as well, allowing Kureshi's characters and the tension between them to become palpable...Gopi Desai's Minoo is an excellent example of a woman trapped in a marriage where her husband no longer wants her. She is bitter, but also very sad, which is pretty much the emotional state of all the characters in the movie, save the hedonist (Schitz).
It's a difficult film to sit and watch, as it's dialogue-intensive and, despite the fact that Parvez is a taxi driver, chase and explosion (save one Molotov cocktail) free. Nonetheless, if you want to see some brilliant interplay between two solid male leads, and if you want to see Kureshi delve into men's softer side, this film is a must-see.
The President's Analyst (1967)
Amazing send-up of just about everything
It's surprising this film didn't have some sort of revival, given the recent critical success of "Analyze This."
This is probably the funniest movie I've ever seen, with most of its humor based upon these things.
1. no cow is sacred in this movie. EVERYTHING gets sent up.
2. great conspiracy
3. great music
4. that wide, toothy, James Coburn Cheshire Cat smile
It's a pity they don't restore the original music. I'd love to see it in its proper version.