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Reviews
Interiors (1978)
A Brilliant Failure
I find myself oddly drawn to this film. In a huge departure for Allen at the time, who had gone from slapstick to urban comedy, he makes an Ingmar Bergman film, and a fairly good one at that.
The acting is first-rate, especially Paige. I disagree with the comments further down that felt she was sterile. I think she managed, in a role that was very rigid and minimalist, to give us a glimpse of a woman in absolute agony, trying to hold it together with iron control until she just can't do it anymore and snaps into a suicidal rage.
The problem for me with "Interiors" is that the characterizations are so rigid that each role becomes a parody of itself. The monologues come across as something highly intelligent people might WRITE, but not what they would SAY, and the metaphors are dropped like lead. In the opening sequences, Eve (Geraldine Paige) talks about the 'slick surfaces,' and as the movie progresses, we discover that the family she created with her husband was wonderful on the surface...but was emotionally rotten at its core.
It goes on and on like this. But as I said, this movie is, to me, a BRILLIANT film even though it ultimately fails. Check it out, it kind of grows on you.
11'09''01 - September 11 (2002)
Haven't seen it yet, disturbed it has gotten no press in US
I haven't yet seen this movie; apparently it played on our Trio cable network on 9/11/03. Now I'm sorry I missed it, the only place it's playing in the Los Angeles area is in Pasadena, which is pretty far from where I live (LA is huge and spread-out, for those who have never been here).
I find it truly disturbing that I only heard about this movie when I did an IMBD search for showtimes for another movie and it caught my eye because it was the first film on the list. Although it sounds very uneven, a couple of segment descriptions have piqued my interest. The Loach segment in particular; I had realized on that same day that Allende was assassinated on that day in 1973 (one of the truly worst moments in the history of American foreign policy. And yes, I AM an American). A few users down near the bottom said they thought the movie was "banned in the United States." I find that a bit hard to believe, as our censorship in this country is implicit rather than explicit, and also that two of the segments were directed by Americans (Mira Nair is essentially an American now). It is an "art film," and some of the segments are experimental, but I find it baffling that I've read NOTHING about this movie...and I read the entertainment trades.
Anyway, I hope to see it this weekend. Thanks for all the comments.
TIM
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
Brilliant, but ultimately unsatisfying
This movie has been highly recommended to me by many people, and it seems that most of the comments have been superlative...so I finally checked it out (the unrated version, of course).
This is one of, if not THE, most visually interesting movie I have ever seen, and with one of the most haunting scores to go with it, the film has a kind of hypnotic grandeur. And Ellen Burstyn's performance was absolutely stellar, not to mention how she put herself so out there, so vulnerable; again, one of the best I've ever seen. And all of the actors were fantastic.
Ultimately to me the movie fails, especially as it frenetically descends into the final whirlpool of misery. I hadn't realized until I watched the special features that the film is based on a Hubert Selby novel. I have the same criticism for this film that I did for an adaptation of Selby's "Last Exit to Brooklyn;" that the story's unflinching look at the most tormented human misery has absolutely no dramatic tension whatsoever. You watch it for the same reasons that people stop at car accidents; a voyeuristic fascination with other people's misery and death. I remember thinking as I watched Selby's interview on the DVD that suffering without heroism tells us nothing, and there is nothing remotely heroic about any of Selby's characters, ever. Not that there should have been any sugar-coated happy ending, but the sort of nihilistic meaninglessness that you're left with leaves no empathy for the characters, and ultimately no connection to the film.
Watch it for the visuals, the music, the performances...Aranofsky is a genius. I just wish he'd chose more interesting source material.
Six Degrees of Separation (1993)
This was a brilliant play
I saw Stockard Channing do this play on Broadway, and it remains one of the best theater experiences ever. It's really the story of her character Ouisa gradually seeing that her life is just pretty surfaces, and in meeting this young con-man with whom she makes an intense emotional connection, that she wants more than her marriage, her friends, her life. The dialogue goes like the wind and you barely get a chance to catch your breath; some of the dialogue is spoken as a soliloquy. It's John Guare's mastery of the language at its best, better than "The House of Blue Leaves." I'm much more of a movie person than a theater person, but this play really sang.
Unfortunately the translation to film is only partially successful. Whereas the play is a spoken confessional of Oiusa Kitteridge, the movie emphasizes Paul (Will Smith). Smith does a good-to-great job with this character. The transition from a verbal to a visual medium robs the language of much of its power, and rather than re-write it as a movie, it's sort of a 'half-transition,' which doesn't really please anyone. The other problem I had with it was Donald Sutherland; who wasn't half-bad. But John Cunningham, who played the role on Broadway, was sharper, harder, a GAMBLER...Sutherland just comes across as a nice guy that gets a bit upset that he's been conned. And the emotional blow that comes at the end of the play when you realize that Oiusa's perfect marriage is falling apart just doesn't come across.
Still fascinating for its premise and worth a look; even this watered-down version never fails to entertain.
Bis ans Ende der Welt (1991)
OK, now I'm fascinated
I call this movie "Until the End of My Ass" because it was SO long and boring that my butt fell asleep. I was getting bored of the "Road Movie" first two hours, then realized that I was now going to be subject to ANOTHER HOUR of mind-numbing psuedo-New-Age "spiritual insights". Then the world ends, and there is absolutely NO payoff. I have a vague memory of the lead actress on a mission in space...then the lights came up and I gratefully stumbled out of the theater. The only reason why I kept any interest in this film is because it has one of the best soundtracks of any movie, ever, period.
Now I read that there's a 5 hour version, which so many people (including, apparently Wenders himself, who calls the US release the "Readers Digest version") say is like a totally different film. My first thought was "OH GOD, ANOTHER TWO HOURS!" But then I started thinking about it. Wenders has made so many amazing films that are incredibly slow-paced, and this movie just didn't make coherent sense, that it's quite possible that the longer version may actually be the brilliant movie that I always thought was lurking under the mess of the original 178 minute US release.
Where the hell can you see this puppy? E-mail me if you know.