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jeffharms2000
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Yeast (2008)
Great movie
Hilarious. During the first half hour all I could think of was how i was going to email all of the girls i know to tell them to see this. The camping arguments, the elusive mood swings, reminded me of all of them... But then Yeast is more universal than that, and by the halfway point i was reminded of my own mood swings, and my own unsolvable irrational hostilities. In retrospect it reminds me of Dostoyevski's Notes From the Underground. The misery, the conflict, relentless and almost self-satisfying. They subtly grin sometimes while they dig at each other.
I loved this movie. I am a big fan of Cassavettes, and this feels like a natural evolution of that thread of film-making. Although in Yeast the characters are more archetypal than "real". Don't get me wrong the performances of Mary Bronstein, Greta Gerwig and Amy Judd, of the whole cast are full of brilliantly wild subtle moments. During the film I thought a lot about "A Woman Under the Influence." But in this film, no one is outside the influence. Everyone is insane. I love the last shot of the girl alone, totally in need of the people she has treated so poorly, the people who all hate each other. To be lead by the hand up to a moment as emotionally complicated and ambiguous as that ending, well its just about the greatest thing in the world.
In the sense of being an 'indie' film, i should say i got a great thrill out of thinking about how it was made. Sneaking into the 'reserved' section of a burger king, walking through the turnstyles at Great America... I really felt like i was there. And this is the great advantage of this kind of film and why it succeeds where Hollywood fails. Movies shouldn't be afraid to keep the camera close to their actors. I really enjoy this sort of intimacy. What Yeast adds to this notion is the idea of cramming the most reactionary absurd conflict possible into that small and genuine space. I think ultimately the film starts to articulate something larger than just some great performances. there is something far more thoughtful and deliberate going on here.
I really dislike this word "mumblecore". I am very pleased to see that at least one group of filmmakers is kicking and screaming their way towards articulating a more impassioned vision.
The Replacement Child (2007)
Awesome
Extremely taut and effective storytelling. Beautifully shot. I feel like I have been in a very full world for the last 20 minutes. This is one of the best depictions of dealing with violence or dealing with being violent I have seen. Far from being a morality tale, I found this to be a study in what it is to be violent and human, and therefore far more interesting.
great sound design. Its the sound that actually made me go searching on the internet. Often the sound carries the narrative in the film and I was looking for a further explanation of the ending... I will check back and see if anyone replies.
Really effective. This does more than most films do in 2 hours.
Klimt (2006)
sucked
I took my class to see this. I hoped that it would be a nice glimpse into the art of the time. If Art Nouveau is all sentimental trite symbolism then this film was an accurate depiction both in content and style.
Its one of those FLASHBACK films where the artist is on his deathbed and we revisit the characters in his life. Unlike Citizen Kane, KLIMTS characters are painfully one dimensional. We begin to gather that this is a dream-like revisiting of events so there is no story line to follow either. You are at the mercy of the filmmakers pathos and his need to use every pretty shot he captured regardless of pushing forward the narrative. This would be fine if the vignettes didn't contain way too many pretentious people in carnival masks. I really hate sentimentality like this. I don't think you can just simplify life birth and death into cardboard cutout and claim you have made meaningful symbolic art. Klimts paintings are interesting to me because they contain a decadence we covet and because their figures seem both eroticized and mortal.
A much deeper film could have been made by any painter who has studied Klimt or who had maybe lived a similar life of lonely excess. How great it would be to make a film about being an artist, rather than these terrible biopics (ie pollack) which try to SIMPLIFY an artists vision into an art history thesis. I feel like Im reading a bad term paper that someone has tried to art-up to disguise their lack of insight.
Save your time and go to a museum GOod artist films? I would say: AMADEUS, THE HORSES MOUTH, I also enjoyed Schnabels BASQUIAT and BEFORE NIGHT FALLS. others?
Kwik Stop (2001)
Great movie
I really liked this movie. Seemed like a regular indie movie about self-centered young adults, but really became something else. The movie quickly runs away with itself. I just read the Ebert review. He said Kwikstop "follows its characters where they insist on going". I agree with him that this is what makes the movie surprising and fun.
It is curious too how the characters "grow up" during the movie. In a way the film-making and acting also mature as the film continues. It goes from quick and self-conscious in the acting and camera-work to long static jim-jarmusch (stranger than paradise) like shots and virtuoso performances. It is really strange. By the end you feel like you are in a different film altogether. I had that feeling of inevitability watching the characters struggle that all good fiction gives me.
Also there is a monologue in this by the character Emil (Rich Komenich) that I have just watched a hundred times. Totally gives me chills every time. Just brilliant.
I would totally see more movies by these people.
Pickpocket (1959)
defending pickpocket
The film defends itself pretty well. But if you are watching and trying to see its importance or to feel that it is not dated, you need to understand grace as a religious notion. In this light the film can never be dated. What is grace? Id call it an acceptance of things as they are in a religious sense; and an observance of the divine in the ordinary. consider then that every frame of the film, of almost all his films, supports this world view, and you have a pretty profound body of work. His films if anything are trying to be as timeless as possible. The rigor that must have gone into paring down the film's telling...! and the range of expression, nuances of plot and character achieved by having so much Non-acting, so many affect less gestures is really useful for those considering telling their own stories honestly.