Skinshark Reviews

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

Again, Gilliam Takes Us on a Thought-Provoking Wild Ride

[8/10 · 23 May 2018]

Maybe it helps to be familiar with Terry Gilliam's canon of work. But as a whole The Man Who Killed Don Quixote is a multi-layered story of the Ages of Man. The Dreamer and the Raconteur living in parallel lives.

What's fascinating is how the meanings of each of the characters and their story arcs fold into each other from the director, Terry Gilliam's own life to Adam Driver, playing a Gilliam figure all the way to Jonathan Pryce's man who's seemingly lost his mind. Part of me wonders how much of this is a farcical documentary or auto-biography.

Still as heady as it can be it still entertains. The acting is great, the characters are fully realized and the settings, cinematography and production design are signature styles of Gilliam: hand-crafted to bend to the will of his vision...as mad as it may be.

This is not a run-of-the-mill linear movie. It's not a popcorn flick. There's a lot to interpret and involve the audience so, don't expect instant gratification. To a lot of reviewers it seems they were overwhelmed by an unclear story. Which that may be true for those who don't want to be involved in the story. It asks a bit of self-reflection, it asks a bit of trust that the characters, working on several levels of psychosis, dreams, hallucinations and madness will all come to a natural conclusion in their story arcs and bring the global story of the film into one single point of focus:

We all had dreams once and we got lost. We may remember those dreams in our middle-age and yet in our old age we may become consumed by the dream to point of dreaming of our own existence.

If you like BRAZIL or THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS you will like this film.

The Cove (2009)

More than the sum of it's parts...

[7/10 · 11 December 2009]

The Cove is an interesting examination on the culture and killing of small cetaceans (dolphins in particular) in Taiji, Japan.

What makes this harder to accept than most ocean farming is that dolphins are incredibly intelligent aquatic life. In fact the U.S. military is reported to have been using dolphins in sonar experiments for years. Along with Sea World and other "captive" examples of dolphins for human entertainment it's considered a cruel act that actually fuels the economy of Taiji, Japan.

The film builds up the grisly mystery of this remote fishing village and the people behind the farming of dolphins. It does a good job laying out the mission of the film crew and all the players involved on both sides of the issue. It does lean quite heavily on the last 1/3 of the movie which didn't have as much impact to me as I thought the "thermal imaging" of the opening sequence had--which was creepy as hell.

What can't be denied here is the powerful messages.

Killing dolphins doesn't do anyone any good even culturally speaking. The levels of mercury in dolphins are astronomically high and dangerous for human consumption. Yet it's slipped into the food system in Japan without regulation or even correct labeling. At its very basic it's a public health issue that is not being addressed and may have larger consequences on a culture than not farming dolphin.

Even if you can't get behind the cruelty of dolphin farming, you'd certainly be able to understand the larger consequences at hand. The film does a great job of laying it all out. It's beautifully shot and edited. The extras are great, especially the short doc on mercury in fish and in vaccines...do not miss this any part of this doc.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

This one lacked focus.

[3/10 · 1 January 2008]

Sad to say out of all the Spiderman films this one lacked thematic focus. It's not that you can't have light-hearted comedy mixed with drama but the light and dark were so contrasty it tend to hurt ones eyes.

First things first, you have Peter Parker as a main character as well as his alter ego, Spiderman. Right there you have two threads to follow. His personal life and his superhero life. Add two villains each with personal lives and villainous lives. Add Harry Osbourne Jr.(James Franco)who flips back and forth between good and bad, Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy as a convenient love interests.

This in itself is a feat to maintain any level of consistency while tying together a meaningful plot. What seemed like a good idea, was to give everyone a real human conflict that was magnified by their alter-ego. That way we could connect to everyone, and no one at the same time.

Because let's face it at the end of the day this movie personifies everything bad about the comics 'kids' used to read 30 years ago. Comics have gotten better...I just don't know why nobody is paying attention.

There were parts that were soooo whacky that I really believed Jerry Lewis was going to step into the scene screaming, "LAAAADY!". Granted those scenes in and of themselves were sometimes very funny (J.J.Jameson especially) but man...not the right movie for it. There was no spine to the story and too many cooks in the kitchen. Simple as that.

=s=

The Woman Chaser (1999)

Funny off-beat film with great performances!

[10/10 · 19 January 2004]

Beautiful looking film and a fun story. It's hard to find deadpan humor with a dash of off-beat to really make things stick. Patrick Warburton's performance is excellent. His dominating presence leaves you in awe as he tackles the various sides of his character. I'm left with a sense of nostalgia when I watch this film. Especially with the use of black and white coupled with the set locations.

I just wished both Patrick and Robinson could get bigger projects through the gristmill of Hollywood.