ss3 Reviews

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)

Gorgeous

[10/10 · 29 December 2005]

A very fine gorgeous, gorgeous, film, which it should be. I love one of the viewer's comments that entertainment circles have somehow turned against beauty. I once loved that about Hollywood. How Angela Jolie is being cast in action feminist flicks is beyond me, but beauty, what can I say, it still enchants, bewitches, sends me to another planet. Having spent ten days in Kyoto's extraordinary gardens during cherry blossom time, and having gone to the very theater on that one night that is presented in the movie ( where Geishas still hope to find the patronage of a wealthy benefactor) the breathtaking dance of Sayuri beat anything I saw that night. Yes I have Western tastes and undoubtedly there are a thousand and one Chinese distortions of Japanese rituals in this movie. I suppose if this criticism is coming from Japanese audiences it is valid for them. But God, Spielberg was on target to pick the director of Chicago to stage this feast. The talent was extraordinary, John Williams, Yo Yo Ma, Istzhack Pearlman, the acting, and yes, I loved the screenplay. The early very unbeautiful Japan reminded me of David Lean's Oliver and the rest, after Sayuri become enchanted and decided to devote her life to becoming a Geishas is a great great story whether snobs consider it melodrama or not. Indeed I have come to take this particular criticism as a sign I am going to love a movie. Lean could go from black and white dreary Oliver to Dr. Zhivago so hurrah for Rob Marshall, and Steven Spielberg's lavish taste and the wonderful movie they have brought us.

I'd place it among my all time favorites, but then last week I was ready to place Spanglish (speaking of beautiful women)in the same place. Maybe my head is getting soft the more I relax and throw away my absurd developed tastes and replace it with what drew me to movies in the first place, sheer enjoyment of a great story. The more the suffering lovers are made to pay for their longing the more satisfying the resolution. That story will never get old, precisely because it is unrealistic That is why we need it. To be taken away to a place where our vision can be hypnotized and our soul can sing

Sunset Boulevard (1950)

What about Charles Brackett

[9/10 · 22 February 2005]

I have no problem with the acclaim Billy Wilder has received for this movie but I would like to call attention to Charles Brackett, probably the main writer. In particular I would like to see his "To Each His Own" a very fine tear jerker, made into a DVD. Brackett had a deep sensitivity to the older women he wrote about. He should be rediscovered

All the usual kudos about this movie are well deserved. I don't personally enjoy it that much because I find it hard to react to creepy characters even when I can understand them and my head tells me this is true and well done. But as a character Norma Desmond is unforgettable, powerfully executed if unappreciated by me.

Two Family House (2000)

A sweet modest film like the characters in it

[10/10 · 1 October 2004]

This is a fine movie, by a talented artist. The music, the photography, but especially the story are of one piece. Ray Defelitta could have jazzed it up but wisely stayed within the characters and the spirit of his script. He makes it seem so easy. I don't know what to make of it taking 5 years for his next movie to be made, except this business is absurd. I hope he doesn't ever lose what he has here, a place that is fully realized and characters who breathe real air and have real emotions. The acting is extraordinary. The movie kind of reminds me of De Capra. I can't wait for his next film and boy it would be so nice if it was a commercial success. Or am I living in dreamland. We will see.

Super Size Me (2004)

BUBBA MEETS MCDONALD'S

[1/10 · 1 June 2004]

This is an awful movie, which is very frustrating considering the good reviews it got. The main things wrong with it are, briefly, it is stupid, and more to the point, dishonest.

No one disagrees that fast food is not exactly the healthiest food in the world, but the maker of this movie is not content to present that. He does a preposterous experiment in which he eats nothing but McDonald's food for 30 days, and has all these presumably intelligent health experts take tests to see what is happening to his health. Except that is not what is done. He stuffs the food in beyond his appetite, beyond even his stomach's capacity. At one point he vomits it up, because he has continued to eat more than he can tolerate. He gains something like 20+ lbs in 30 days. His liver enzymes, uric acid, cholesterol go bonkers. Guess what? If you ate fig newtons, Indian food, Chinese food, French Food, Thai food, organic food, yogurt, Cheerios, granola, if you ate the healthiest foods in the world to that excess, to the point of gaining all that weight, your body would go equally bonkers. The movie is dishonest because I can't believe that point wasn't made to him by one of his three doctors. Clearly he deliberately edited it out. And if none of them did mention it what can I say? He should have gotten more competent people to evaluate his experiment.

This may all seem picky but on the contrary it is crucial!!!! Because without those abnormal lab tests the movie would reduce to don't eat too much fatty foods. It isn't good for you. But no one. Repeat no one would eat any food to the point this guy did. It is like going to a party in the 4th grade, stuffing yourself with candy and cake and ice cream, with the obvious result that you feel and are sick (since our bodies cannot not take that kind of overload) and then proceed to do that meal after meal for thirty days

Is this going to be standard fare for documentaries now that they are in? Will you, in order to be a sensation at Sundance, have to resort to black and white, Hollywood, dramatizations of reality. Anything else is boring? Are vegan's going to be advising us on healthy living. Well, until the entertainment people are bored with it, say good-bye to a genre that has historically had a lot of integrity.

The movie was mildly interesting, but mostly disgusting as a story about the bubba in us guys, the beer swigging pig in most men that would love to throw caution and discipline to the wind, tell their vegan girlfriend to forget it, (in his case even give up on sex) and all the rest of it, in order to absolutely let go and gorge ourselves. I guess that feels like being free. He seemed so good at it that I predict he will be there within the next 10 or 15 years. This is a movie about him. The style, the relaxed standards are not a comment on America but the self satisfied, I am just a regular stupid guy, ain't I funny mentality that passes for being a bubba guy.

Once again, the movie was irritating in its inaccuracies, but the real shocker is that this movie got great ratings from most of the critics that Tomato uses for its ratings. Maybe some of these critics also should use their brain a little more instead of their gut.

(By the way I don't own stock in McDonald's and although I truly love Egg Mcmuffins, and consider their french fries perfection, I eat them only as a special treat, because of health concerns. I'm simply offended by the glib corporate stabs. I think modern corporations suck but the problem here isn't them. It is us. Our pleasure driven, don't say no, give them cake, put them in day care culture accounts for our gluttony, not McDonald's)

Love Me If You Dare (2003)

Baaaad but not interestingly naughty. Too much posturing

[29 May 2004]

This is all about a certain kind of young person's fantasy of true love, a girl friend to be super bad with. Someone that says all these curse words to the teacher at school. Someone from the wrong side of the track. Someone who appreciates your fierce independence when you take out your penis and urinate on the floor while the principal lectures to you about being responsible. Someone. Someone. You name it. This couple dare each other to do it all. They fight against the whole thing: job, school. marriage, kids, any and all virtues, any expectations, any semblance of responsibility, all of it a prison. And for this they must die. Or do they live? Do they grow old, and pat each other's hand, and say I love you to each other lying back on cheap beach chairs. Not clear. Not clear arty vague. Complete bull

It's this director's first movie and so I guess all is forgiven. But if young artists could only know how boring being bad is as a statement of individuality. I know parents are oppressive, people like me, you just want to shout "shut up" and shock us by doing every last thing we told you not to do.

Okay fine. You are now an adult, or baaaad since you will no longer obey your parents. I guess, the first taste of adulthood, independent thinking is necessarily tied in to simply being disobedient. But if you are going to do it stick to finely observed details, to real people. Four Hundred Blows or Pretty in Pink are far more interesting than the silly suicidal posturing that passes for moving away from Dad in this movie. We know you are soft and scared. You are forgiven for being like us, and trying to be different. Trust me. In a few more years you won't have to try. You will be different. Very different.

Like it or not our individuality starts breaking through, sometimes embarrassing our kids, or making them proud, or of no interest to anyone else. But you get there whether you try to be different or not.

If this kind of posturing remains, the director is doomed as an artist. He does have talent. Not so much the gyrations in plot, and fancy shmancy camera nonsense. Laëtizia Venezia Tarnowska and Gilles Lellouche were terrific. The credit goes to him. Sometimes the closeup were right there. I assume it was he that decided a scene was a take. So he may have a promising future.

But that is when he is ready to grow up. But then the real translation of the title is right on the money. Children's Play. I think I would have had a better mind set with that title than the idea that their play had something to do with dare. True their love did but not the rest.

Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

A delight

[11 April 2003]

Kudos for Ms. Chadha. This might be a replay of My Big Fat Greek Wedding but clearly the theme is appealing to us at a time of social fragmentation. We root for Jessie to get her chance to be "herself" in a modern hip liberated world, but we are not only amused but comforted by her parents seriousness about their traditions, and the dangers of leaving them. Some of the scenes are awkward and corny but fortunately the movie doesn't take itself too seriously and there are strange delights that overcome the movie's weaknesses. Jessie (Parminder Kaur Nagra)is exquisite which in itself makes watching the movie pleasurable. She is both a guileless child and a beautiful woman, the kind of Cinderella tension that makes a movie magic. I don't know if the cuts between the Indian dancing and the soccer game are a special talent of Ms. Chadha but I was delirious with the colors and rhythms. It compares to the best of Micheal Mann, or Steven Spielberg. The images and sound sweep you into a kind of frenzy. So once again congratulations to her. If it was luck I hope you luck out again, or keep the same editor. But I suspect there is real talent here that may bring us many more delights.

All That Jazz (1979)

A masterpiece

[14 June 2002]

A superb movie from a genius. Looking at the comments of others I suppose you either get off on Fosse's "excesses" or just don't get it. What can I say. He has a unique vision and will go with that all the way taking us with him to very new and always surprising places. His inventiveness and keen emotions bring me to wonderful experiences that I treasure. Maybe I am hyper, or maybe Leonard Maltin is flat.

Goya in Bordeaux (1999)

Boring

[19 October 2001]

The photography is admittedly fascinating as is the dance and music, but the movie is very talkey and with no sustaining plot it soon seems clautrophobic and dull. Occasionally their are scenes outside which comes as truly a breath of fresh air. True this is supposed to be about Goya dying, but there is little drama in that since it is a foregone conclusion.