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Inland Empire (2006)
A Good Movie, but Ditch The Digital, David
I just finished watching "Inland Empire", having long awaited a Lynch film since I was so completely awe-struck by "Mulholland Drive." Let's get one thing straight here. David Lynch is probably my favorite director. He is certainly one of the most innovative minds in film and deserves to be on the same plateaus as Kubrick and Scorcese. However, Inland Empire is not a film. It's a three-hour long digital journey, and I honestly think that if this movie had been on film it would have had more of an impact on me.
Making a three-hour digital film is a very daring thing to do and the movie is very impressive in that sense. But I never felt myself entirely engaged with the movie as I had with Lynch in the past. Whereas I usually am on the edge of my seat and overcome with feelings of dread that no horror movie can accomplish, I laid on my couch through most of "Inland Empire" and maybe sat up straight for two whole scenes.
I'm going to attribute this to the film being on digital. For one, the shots and footage are so dark at times that the film feels like you're looking at a black box on the screen for a lot of the movie. In a theatre that may be very different, but on a television set that grows very tiresome.
Secondly, "Inland Empire" is a very ugly film. It is very reminiscent of Lynch's earlier works like "The Alphabet" and "The Grandmother" where the films were very dark and made them even more frightening for those reasons. And yes, those films are very good films, but not pleasing to look at.
This is probably my biggest complaint about the film. Despite Lynch being such a dark and creepy character, his films were always contrasted by moments of serene beauty. The scene in "Mulholland Drive" where Naomi Watts and Laura Harring go to the Club Silencio is one of the most beautiful scenes in a movie I have ever seen. "Inland Empire" has no beauty in it at all, which makes it difficult to sympathize with anyone in it.
Lastly, this is still a problem with the digital nature of the film, but Lynch's style lacks a lot of edge when on digital. Part of what I think made Lynch so impressive is that the shots and takes he got on film most studio executives would have a fit over -- "Is this guy a bloody amateur?!", etc...
And yet that was what made Lynch so special as a director. He managed to capture the things that people were afraid to capture because film as a medium is so costly and most wouldn't waste it on eerie inserts of lamps, and lips, and eyes, etc. He managed to capture discomforting things and show audiences a side of the world they had never seen before. With "Inland Empire", I would argue that any film student or amateur could have done if not the same, the equivalent. The digital style is overall not very Lynchian.
The performances on Laura Dern, Justin Therous, and Jeremy Irons parts are wonderful. Dern is especially brilliant considering she's not playing much of a character but more of an abstraction and yet still is very convincing. The "Locomotion" dance number is worth seeing alone. In the end, I give this film a 7 out of 10 because I am a die-hard Lynch fan and know that those who are not as die-hard as myself will probably be less critical and enjoy this film -- I mean, movie, a lot.
Halloween (2007)
Rob Zombie Knows Horror... Most Don't...
I just saw Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween and must say that I was very impressed. With most horror movie directors these days seeming clueless to their own genre, Rob Zombie comes to the scene as an audience member as well. He knows what he likes in a horror film and understands what the audience wants as well. Halloween has received much harsh criticism because it's not a replication of the original, or Zombie's style makes people uncomfortable... I would argue that these are the same folks who thought "Wrong Turn" was a real horror movie...
Horror is probably the hardest genre in Hollywood to do. I wasn't a fan of Zombie's debut, House of a 1000 Corpses, but Devil's Rejects remains one of my favorite horror films to date. Halloween is not a perfect film by any means. It is a very different take on the classic, and Rob Zombie is a refreshing voice in a genre that has been robbed of any momentum. I personally think he is the best thing to happen to horror in a long time and I will go see any film his name is attached to.
Heroes (2006)
A New Stage In TV Evolution
For a person who grew up with comic books as a big part of their adolescence, this show is a wonderful homage to people like me. The plot is very engaging, the concept is very intelligent, and the special effects are amazing for prime-time television. With all these comic book characters being brought to the big screen in recent years, there is a certain absence to the heart and nostalgia of comic books. Most directors who work on these movies having never even read comic books before and do not understand their audience. I can't say for sure that Tim Kring, the show's creator, was a comic book junkie as a teenager, but Heroes is a far better revision of X-Men than the Bryan Singer films ever were. For comic book fans, this is like a return to the Marvel Golden Age when ordinary people became superheroes. Now, the show is not without it's flaws. The acting and the dialogue is nothing to write home about. Some characters are a far cry from being developed, but the heart is there and that is the point. With serial dramas like Lost and Heroes taking over prime-time viewing and taking us back to the basics of fantasy entertainment, I would argue that television is about twenty steps ahead of the film industry.
Tarnation (2003)
The Only Experimental Film Most People Will See and Clearly Understand
Viewers have some conflicting opinions on Tarnation and I can perfectly see why. Personally, I found the film fascinating not because I thought it was an intimate portrayal of the director, or a revolution in storytelling technique, or a narcissistic piece of garbage, but because I got to watch these people in the movie actually age without no makeup effects involved. How often do you see people actually physically age twenty years over the course of ninety minutes or so? It's an interesting thing to experience.
As far as the director goes, I do admire what he's done but I also feel that he did exploit his mother and his family with this film... The truth is, though, I don't know these people and there was no physical harm done to anyone involved. Regardless of how I feel, that's John's personal life and I have no attachment to that other than what I see on screen, so it's no different to me than the media exploiting people the way they do everyday.
As for the blatant narcissism, which has been the target of most people's criticism, I knew I was in for that after the first five minutes and kept watching anyway. I honestly found it intriguing that this guy was willing to put himself out like that, but also disturbing at the same time. From an objective viewpoint, though, Tarnation is an interesting character study in how far narcissism can go and how much a viewer can take feeling so alienated from the protagonist...
Some may not agree that it is a good movie, but it is something. Experimental film has never really made it into the mainstream and I think Tarnation is the closest it will ever get. I personally can't stand the narcissism of non-narrative, experimental filmmakers, but this movie was something that could hold my attention from beginning to end, over the course of twenty years...
The Fountain (2006)
Worth the Six Year Wait, Even if it Wasn't What I Expected
I just saw The Fountain last night in a tiny indie theatre and have not been able to stop thinking about it since. There is something truly haunting about this film. I started watching it, somewhat familiar with non-narrative films, but having never been so affected by one as this one affected me. The film provokes something very human out of its audience. I can remember being one of seven people in the audience (having had a full house in the beginning) and still watching the credits afterward, sharing a very similar strange sensation. It wasn't joy. It wasn't sorrow. It was just feeling a part of something that I can't explain, and I think the movie is something quite remarkable for being able to do that.
I don't particularly feel like commenting on the performances of this film or the visuals because that is all anyone has been talking about lately. Both are spectacular without a doubt, but what I would rather talk about is this very 50/50 split between people on this film. (Everyone loves controversy.) The critics in my opinion have been very harsh about the film's approach to the story and how they consider it incoherent. The Fountain is a film of its own narrative and a very original one at that, I would argue, so it is no wonder why audiences are divided, but the critics are people who should be used to this kind of thing if they are true movie critics. These people have obviously never been able to sit through a David Lynch film. The Fountain evokes a much more harmonious feeling through its non-linear narrative than any Lynchian film could, which is new for me. However, many critics (I'm directing this to those who submit to Rottentomatos.com) are calling the film too artsy-fartsy and accusing Aronofsky of being too pretentiously... Well, of course the film is pretentiously. It's art. Has our culture become so used to being spoon-fed basic plot narratives that we have grown an aversion to art when art is not necessarily coherent or makes us uncomfortable in some way? I am usually not one for the experimental narrative, but part of going to the movies used to be about seeing something you've never seen before... Well, I can't say I've seen anything like The Fountain quite before, so I consider it a success in my mind.
Don't go into The Fountain expecting a typical film, because it isn't that. It reads more like a poem than a film and I can understand why the average moviegoer would stray away from seeing something like that. The critics I am a bit more disappointed with, but hey! Tenacious D and The Pick of Destiny is playing too and that movie is very enjoyable if you'd just rather watch a movie and not think.
MASH (1970)
Altman's Contribution to Cinema
Robert Altman was given the budget to do MASH by the studios under the understanding that the studio wanted a drive-inn film. Because the studio originally considered it such an insignificant film and so cheap to make, this left Altman and his cast a kind of freedom you don't see in movies today. MASH is very much like a drive-inn movie with an Animal House-type feel, but a social conscience and artist integrity that sorely lacks these days. It's satirical, silly, subversive, and probably one of the best American films made. Altman inspired a generation of young directors like P.T. Anderson and Wes Anderson in both his style and his dedication, and will be remembered as one of the American film-making veterans. Nominated five times and having never received an Oscar, he goes down like so many other directors who were unrecognized by the Academy for their genius. Rest in peace, Mr. Altman.
They Live (1988)
Carpenter's B-movie Masterpiece!
John Carpenter had said that They Live had been the best film he had ever made, considering he also made Halloween, Escape From New York, and The Thing remake (arguably one of the scariest films and one of my favorite horror movies). To call this movie his best film is really interesting on my part because I can see where he is coming from with it. It's bad in the best possible way.
The film stars WWF Wrestling legend Roddy Rowdy Piper as the lead hero who discovers a pair of sunglasses that reveal to him that the world has in fact been taken over by an imperialist alien race who has turned earth into a capitalist, decadent hell. However, in sociological context, take away the aliens, and earth already looks that way. The film is interesting because it was made around that transition period between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, so there's some competing trends and ideologies here.
The first time I saw They Live, I remember flipping through the channels and finding it on the Space Channel. It was already half-way into it and I saw Piper wandering around aimlessly on the streets of New York, seeing the aliens all around him through cheesy black and white POV shots, and I kept asking myself, "What the hell is this?" It seemed really surreal, almost like the world around Piper had become a B-movie. Then Piper opens his mouth with a barrage of bad one-lines (the famous "I am hear to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I'm all out of bubble gum) and I knew exactly what I was seeing. It was different, though. I had never seen a B-movie with a brain, a social-conscience, and a self-reflexive sense of humor before. Usually you only get one of those things and it's generally not the first two.
The beauty of They Live is that it is a B-movie, but it's a high-budget B-movie paying a loving homaging to the genre. It's one for the fans. It has the premise and the look of a B-movie. (Comparitively speaking to Carpenter's other works, the photography for this film is ugly as hell.) Carpenter is embracing the B-movie status of this film and using his talents/intelligence as a gifted director to make it that much more of a B-movie. Everyone involved in the film seems to know that except Piper, which makes the film even more enjoyable. His heroic crusades in the movie appear more like a madman on a killing spree - a direct jab at the whole 80s action hero trend. As a side note, Carpenter took this idea from the Italian Pablum films of the 50s and 60s, where Hercules went on fantastical and mystical adventures, but everyone in the audience watched him for how much of an idiot he was. There's a point in the film where so hobos are watching the original Hercules film starring Steve Reeves on a junky old television set.
I won't spoil anything for those of you who haven't seen this masterpiece, but there is a fight scene in the film that makes the entire thing worth seeing. It's so absurd and so ridiculously long that it made in the series "Top Ten Movie Fights." If you watch this movie for anything, watch it for that. It is so great.