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Ed-165
Reviews
Megacities (1998)
frightfully realistic
I haven't seen lots of documentaries, but this was one of the best ones I've seen in years. The film portrays the poor, homeless, and drug addicted citizens of Bombay, Mexico City, Moscow and New York City. Some scenes are so realistic that I wondered how they were shot - e.g. some of the scenes with the heroin addict in New York City.
Seeing a film like this also makes you realize how many people's stories do not get told by Hollywood films. When is the last time you saw some mass marketed film about a mother who strip dances to feed her children? Or a man who shakes different colored paint through a sieve for a living? The only other film I can think of like this was Hoop Dreams, but that at least dealt with young people with a chance to make something of their lives. Megacities deals with those who didn't make it and never will.
Yet some scenes aren't completely depressing. There's a DJ in New York City, asking his listeners to describe how they survive in the city. There are children in India who take turns watching an Indian soap opera. Finally and most disgusting, there's a scene with a whole barrel full of chickens whose necks have been broken and throats slashed but yet still move around and splatter their blood against the wall.
I'm surprised that so few people have seen (and thus voted) this film, especially considering it won awards in three continents. If you get a chance to see it, do, but be forewarned of its vividness.
10/10
Al di là delle nuvole (1995)
A mixed bag
I'm not really sure what to make of this movie, especially after seeing a great film like La Notte. Unfortunately I saw this in German during an Antonioni film festival at the Frankfurt Film Museum, so I didn't get to hear Malkovich's great voice. He is supposed to tie together four stories about couples in Italy. However, as good an actor as he is, Malkovich cannot rescue the most ridiculous of the four stories portrayed here: a woman who comes up to him at a waterside cafe near a shop she owns and blurts out about how she killed her father nearby. Then the two of them go home, have sex, and he leaves. It seems as if Antonioni lost the subtlety had in earlier films (like The Passenger) when dealing with sex and replaced it with blatant nudity.
However nonsensical the storyline is, the film features two things that make it watchable: eye and ear candy. The actors and actresses are all beautiful people, and the cinematography is marvelous - scenes in old Italian cities contrasting with a bit in a tall apartment building overlooking a city (reminiscent of La Notte).
The ear candy, however, is what really makes the film worth watching. U2 and Brian Eno collaborated on "Your Blue Room" and "Beach Sequence," both of which set the mood perfectly in the film. The songs are available on "Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1."
The Matrix (1999)
One of the best sci-fi films in years
A rare example of great special effects, a seriously fascinating concept, and a well executed plot all in one, The Matrix is far and away the best film of the year so far. After three viewings I feel that I can grasp the majority of the themes presented in the film, but I'm sure I'd pick up on more upon a fourth viewing. Many of these themes have already been expressed in other of these reviews, but some have not (although I haven't read all 1000+ of them):
Fate: at first I didn't understand what the Oracle had to do with the plot - it seemed to be a mythological/religious reference that detracted from the Christian theme running through the film. I eventually realized that the presence of the Oracle raises the question of fate, or more accurately, whose reading of fate we should trust, i.e. that determined by the machines or that determined by the Oracle. The Matrix is a computer program and thus, given all of the facts, the future, or fate, can be determined. We are not inclined to believe that about the real world, given Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, etc., but Morpheus and the Oracle suggest that fate works here as well. If both worlds are controlled by fate and thus deterministic, then what is the difference between them? If the actions of the rebels in the real world are predictable like a computer program, then why could not a computer program be written to describe the real world as well?
Mind: the agents attempt to "hack" into Morpheus' mind, much "like a computer" as Trinity says. So what is the difference between his mind and a computer? In fact, the film treats the mind much like a computer - i.e. "uploading" martial arts training into Neo's mind and entering the Matrix ("downloading" your mind?).
Music: the techno music played in the film again raises the question of the difference between man and machine - if this music is completely produced on a synthesizer/computer, then what makes it human? I may be incorrect, but I only recall hearing the techno music in the Matrix scenes, not the real world scenes. [Sidepoint: why does the music on the soundtrack have to be inevitably different from the music played in the film? This really disappointed me, and it's not the first time either - check out Moby's "God moving over the face of the waters" in the film "Heat" and on the soundtrack.]
Anyway, with a couple of exceptions (Keanu Reeves' acting, the way he "saw" the Matrix at the end of the film) this is a truly great film. It's better than either Terminator film and sits right up there with Metropolis, Star Wars, Blade Runner, or 2001 as the greatest sci-fi films of all time. What makes all of these films great is that they come up with an interesting concept, have an enjoyable plot and great special effects, and give you a lot to think about when the film is over (which is where the Terminator films fail, the second to a lesser extent). If this film gets nominated for Best Picture it will restore my faith in Hollywood. See it.