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Reviews
Capitalism: A Love Story (2009)
Confuses Corporatism-Statism with Capitalism
I agree with most of the film, except for the mistake of calling this system "Capitalism". Virtually all of the excesses in the film revolve around people abusing political power for money, which has nothing at all to do with Capitalism as such. The real evil described in this film is the fact that politicians and judges are given power over us, literally at the point of a gun, to legislate for or against specific activities. The correct solution, in my view, is to minimize how many of these powerful people there are, get rid of the government's monopoly on force and the dispensation of justice, and eliminate any situation where the violence of government can grant favors to people willing to bribe bureaucrats, judges, and politicians. I really wish Moore had taken a look at libertarian solutions to these problems instead of releasing this piece of agit-prop for more of the kinds of special interest regulations that got us into this mess in the first place.
Surviving Disaster (2009)
Surprisingly Well Informed
I've been studying terrorism and disaster preparedness for 20 years and in my opinion this is one of the most accurate shows on this topic that's ever been on TV. Granted, some of the situations are pretty dire and unlikely, but all the better to illustrate that with a little preparation and if you keep calm, an ordinary crisis situation is very survivable. I also like how it realistically portrays the viciously violent nature of criminals today -- reality is much more shocking than the toned-down fare we normally get in movies and TV. I've only seen the first four episodes thus far, but hopefully later in the season they add a few words about how one can prepare in advance to lessen the impact of emergency situations -- thus far, the presumption is that the victims have to survive with only what's at hand.
Brick (2005)
Promising Debut
Although it could have so easily descended into parody, first-time director Rian Johnson managed to take a minuscule budget and a bunch of no-name actors and craft a tight thriller which pays careful homage to the film noir tradition. Although the cast is very young, the Chinatown atmosphere is very credible. I wish he had a bit more money so that the audio could be fixed up with a little ADR, but maybe now that the film is picked up for distribution they will go back in there and make a few improvements. I think this film would be best as a DVD release where you can turn the sound way up. Visually, the director has obviously put a lot of thought into exactly what mood each shot is intended to convey. Film students would be well advised to see this film as a great example of economy of expression -- there are no extraneous lines of dialog or unnecessary shots. Well done for a first film!
Hostel (2005)
State of the art in intense horror
As a rule, I find horror films a little tiresome, but Hostel starts with a great premise and slowly builds up to some outrageous horror. The film tips its hat to some of the classics, and there's even a delightful cameo of Pulp Fiction playing in the background. It's not good that the premise of the movie is revealed in the IMDb listing as you don't learn the truth until near the end of the movie and it all starts to make a lot more sense. One thing about horror films which has always bugged me is that the bad guys never seem real to me, as if they are some kind of limitless satanic evil or whatever. In Hostel, by contrast, we really believe that the scenario is very plausible and for that, all the more frightening. I wouldn't be surprised at all if this kind of thing goes on in certain parts of the world. As far as maximum creep value, I saw it in a packed house at a screening in Beverly Hills last night, and many in the audience couldn't take it and ran out -- one guy was retching in the bathroom and was too scared to leave! The organizer had to talk him down and call one of his friends to take him home. The director was there for a Q&A which will be on the Creative Screen writing Magazine podcast, and he said that at one test screening they had to call a ambulances for two different people. It appears that the explicit sex, torture and violence will not be toned down for the theatrical release and it will still have an R rating instead of NC-17 which most of us thought it deserved. The trick, is that there is no sex during the violent scenes, and no violence in the sex scenes, which makes the MPAA more comfortable. By the way, this was shot near Prague, and is amazingly beautiful to look at -- I was there a month ago and the place is like something out of a fairy tale (unlike most historic European areas, there isn't a McDonalds every hundred feet). The ending is very, very satisfying yet believable and unforced. The audience was screaming, gasping, cheering, and hiding their faces at all the right moments. Eli's interview was a hoot, also, so check out the podcast once they post it on itunes. It's worth it for no other reason than to hear his anti-Union rant!
The Family Stone (2005)
Liked it
I don't normally enjoy romantic comedy "chick flicks" but I saw this one recently and liked it. It's like you took a syrupy romcom and added a little grit and smut to keep the male audience members interested. I usually despise Sara Jessica Parker, but liked her in this movie, because she plays an annoying bitch and I suppose the director just told her to "act naturally".
One niggle -- I think the film asks some questions which it forgets to answer. For example, SJP says some supposedly bigoted things at the table (or perhaps, one could argue the family was too touchy) but we never find out if she cares one way or the other about the deaf gay son and his black boyfriend.
For that matter, you could argue that Ben Stone falls in love with Meridith's sister Julie a little too easily. The blunt instrument of the mother (brilliantly played by Diane Keaton, someone else I normally don't like) telling her husband that their son doesn't really know what he wants is meant to foreshadow Ben's change of heart, but that didn't really work for me.
This is writer/director Bezucha's first major work, and he's young, so I suspect his future work will be tighter and more believable.