imdb-5032 Reviews

What Lies Beneath (2000)

Pfeiffer at the peak of her ability

[10/10 · 20 September 2012]

This movie is sickeningly good. It draws you in and pulls you under, leaving you gasping for air.

Very slowly but surely, methodically, the movie removes your sense of agency. It switches effortlessly from comfort to menace, and purposefully limits your perception until the feeling of disorientation becomes total. You're left helpless to do anything but watch events unfold.

Pfeiffer, long a favorite for her inscrutable presence, at once commanding and melancholic, inhabits the part as if possessed. Her grace, character and poise lend an intimacy to each scene that turns the spine-chilling climax into an agonizing bit of torture.

The photography and post-production is beautiful, with tons of subtle lighting and special effects. Like the musical score, it never dwells, but is always there to remind you what lies beneath.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Like watching plate tectonics

[6/10 · 11 January 2009]

Maybe we have exhausted the possibilities of a particular kind of film-making. Maybe there is only so much you can tell when you forgo explanation, when every motive is ambiguous, when events unfold with the unpredictability and unknowability of life itself. Maybe there is a limit to what you can show without telling. Or maybe, "There Will Be Blood" just failed at showing what it needed to tell.

The first part of the film shows a tough, bitter oil man seeking his fortune in an isolated backwater town. It is suggested that he exploits his son and the community in his quest for oil, but we also see him care for his son and the community appears to prosper.

Prone to drink and a violent temper, he commits a few atrocious acts and then the movie jumps forward a number of years to show that he has become a monster. Then the film ends.

In between there is really no tension or dramatic conflict. While the main character is played evocatively, I couldn't tell you what his significance is, either historically, as a moral example, or for the surrounding cast. He is presented as a force of nature, without comment or context.

Which makes this film like watching plate tectonics. For a long time nothing happens, then something erupts, then nothing happens. The causes remain hidden deep underground. It might make for oil, but doesn't make good film.

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Intrigued but disappointed

[6/10 · 31 December 2008]

From the very first frame this movie sets up an atmosphere of quiet anxiety and dignified despair. It is a very good movie, superbly shot and scripted, with great timing and fantastic acting. But it is too self-conscious to be engrossing, and as the movie progresses, the sombre gravitas becomes a bit of a caricature, perhaps even a crutch.

Despite being a truly great work of film making, on some level it fails to connect. It lacks the will to persuade that its uncompromising vision serves a need, and lacks the energy to make up for the non-sequiturs in the plot.

Initial viewing left me intrigued but disappointed. Will likely watch again.

Iron Man (2008)

Better off giving Robocop another viewing

[3/10 · 31 December 2008]

Another poster has said it already: this is Robocop in 2008, without the humor or the humanity.

I am not the target audience for this kind of movie so there is no point in detailing all the points where it fell down for me. I hope it brings in lots of money for the studio and I'm sure it will do well on that front.

I was pleasantly surprised by Robert Downey's performance. He looks great and manages to convey the right mix of arrogance and boyish (self) absorption. Gwyneth Paltrow has never looked so fine.

If you're thinking about watching this and haven't seen Robocop yet, please go rent that instead.

WALL·E (2008)

Thoroughly enjoyable

[9/10 · 3 August 2008]

Despite having lead characters made out of metal and shiny plastic, this film has got heart & guts & balls. The visual detail is breathtaking and the animation damn near flawless. Just five minutes into the movie you already feel for WALL-E. No small feat, given that there are no supporting characters, except for a cockroach, and there is no dialogue, no voice-over. Then you realize that not only are you sympathizing with a robot - you are sympathizing with a robot that exists only as bits in a rendering farm. The level of craftsmanship here is amazing.

Trigger happy EVE is one of the strongest female characters in film since Ripley in Alien. Note to film makers: strength is about being being independent. It is not about striking awkward martial arts poses in spandex or form-fitting leather outfits.

It would have been so easy for the movie to portray humans as dumb and callous. But Pixar pulls it off with warmth and feeling. After 700 years on a never-ending cruise to nowhere, humans have grown fat and complacent, but they haven't lost their humanity.

Certainly not for everyone and a bit sappy at times, this is a gorgeous film that shows even robots, nay, render farms can churn out compelling cinema with an emotional core (here's looking at you, George Lucas).

Atonement (2007)

A beautifully rendered crocodile tear

[4/10 · 20 January 2008]

Despite excellent casting and powerful acting by lead actors Knightly and McAvoy, this movie is held back by bad direction and screenplay.

Many scenes drag on, seemingly without purpose, at the expense of detail and backstory. We get too little of the dreadful confectionery king Marshall (the perfect villain if ever there was one). We get nothing of Robbie's time in prison. We get almost nothing of Robbie's background and the class struggle.

The musical score, with the exception of a few golden moments (like the grandfather clock ticking in the background during the library scene), is overbearing and poorly directed, and after a while becomes frankly annoying.

The film's critical flaw however is that Briony is profoundly uninteresting. Her feelings are ersatz and officious, making her gestures meaningless. During Briony's confrontation with Cecile and Bobbie the film almost redeems itself by exposing Briony's childishness and the inadequacy of her remorse. Which could have been followed by an unadventurous but serviceable fade to black and drinks for the weary audience - many, many drinks.

Sadly that is not what happens. Instead, in a final outrageous act of betrayal, after what feels like hours and hours of agonizingly smeared out long shots, the viewer is summarily informed that the precious few scenes of dramatic interest were in fact figments of Briony's guilty imagination.

Then the movie wraps up with an embarrassing scene showing Robbie and Cecilia at the beach. This is Briony's fanciful way of saying sorry: a beautifully rendered crocodile tear.

De dominee (2004)

Sags in too many places

[6/10 · 17 December 2006]

Script has some flaws: dialogue is poor throughout and development is sketchy and confused. Acting is fairly solid. Frans Lammers is pretty good as Adri and Chantal Janzen delivers.

In some respects, the Bruinsma legacy seems to have intimidated rather than inspired this movie. Peter Paul Muller seems wary to actually provide substance to his character and on occasion comes across as a bit of a lifeless cast, more concerned with not getting it wrong than with getting it right.

Towards the end De Dominee picks up speed and force and works towards a predictable but suitably tragic conclusion. Sharper direction and editing might have helped bring more intensity to the beginning and the middle as well. As it is, the movie sags too often.

Frida (2002)

Demanding but merciful

[8/10 · 13 November 2006]

Visually stunning and emotionally compelling, Frida is alternately graceful and gruesome, factual and fantastic, thrilling and chilling. Selma Hayek conveys Frida's iconic image with relish and transcends the typically clichéd Latin temperament. Alfred Molina is irresistible as the charming, philandering artist/husband Diego. Roger Rees delivers a beautifully subdued performance as the loving, struggling father.

Striking surrealist segues and overlays provide startling and visceral brushes with the dark and dream-like "twilight reality" that also pervades Frida's work. The arbiters of life and death have never been more convincingly portrayed than in the eerie, demon-like skeleton creatures which discuss Frida's condition after the traffic accident. The near-subliminal shimmer of Death in the face of Trotsky's murderer is as unsettling as it is apt.

The film can be demanding as it swings vertiginously between suffering, betrayal, and death, but it is never callous and ultimately merciful; both on Frida and on the viewer.

Billy Elliot (2000)

Unprepossessed, humorous and genuinely moving

[9/10 · 13 March 2005]

There are so many things that could have gone terribly wrong with this film. It could have turned out as dreary, faux-realist prole-pornography. It could have turned out as a swooning paean on Northern English sensibility, replete with postcard cinematography. It could have turned out as a grimly activist protest against bourgeois conformism and capitalist oppression.

It turns out to be an aptly scored, superbly acted and strikingly shot masterpiece. Vividly edited and briskly plotted, we follow young Billy as he fumbles his boxing lessons and discovers ballet during the great miner's strikes in the 80s.

The inevitable tension that develops between Billy and his father is played out among a cast of memorable characters: Billy Fane's appearance as the seedy, misanthropic piano player is brief but hilarious; Julie Walters' rendition of the chain-smoking ballet teacher is simply iconic.

The depth and detail in this movie evoke countless bittersweet images: the way Billy's gritty neighbourhood is framed so as to show the majestic and tranquil sea in the distance, glistening with Olympian indifference; the menacing, surreal omnipresence of authority in the form of the British police force; the dignified despair of a town library which has been relegated to a mobile home.

Unprepossessed, humorous and genuinely moving.

Swimming Pool (2003)

Subtly sensational

[8/10 · 27 February 2005]

Initially I didn't know what to think of this movie. But I recently saw it a second time and on this occasion it struck me as absolutely wonderful. It remains deeply puzzling.

Many people interpret the movie as a fabrication of Sarah's tortured psyche. But honestly I think that interpreting the movie as a menopausal fever-dream just doesn't do it justice.

If Sarah's grip on reality is as tenuous as it would have to be for her to "make it all up", then we might as well assume that the entire movie is a fabrication: not just the holiday in France, but everything from the point where the lady in the subway asks her whether she is Sarah Morton. This would be faintly interesting from a radicalist perspective, I suppose. It would also be terribly disappointing, because it would mean that Julie doesn't really exist.

But the movie does seem to suggest quite the contrary. We get to know Sarah as a very regimented character, not at all the type of person who would be susceptible to flights of fancy.

And although it is true that Julie's stunning beauty and cavalier disregard for convention do suggest that she is somehow not of this world, she also indulges in all too worldly pleasures, and suffers from all too human flaws -- and she has the scar to prove it. She seems both real and unreal, certainly an idealization, but hardly a figment of the imagination. Perhaps she is a kind of muse.

In the end, though, details aside, I like to think that the "it was all just a dream" interpretation doesn't work because it is totally at odds with the way the movie hallows the significance of visceral experience.

The Experiment (2001)

Banality of evil turns out to be a hoot

[7/10 · 27 February 2005]

Intriguing exploration of man's propensity towards power, violence, sadism, you name it.

Some striking cinematography and bold editing ultimately do not make up for the flaws in the script. The sudden hamfisted introduction of the love interest is pointless and absurd.

But more importantly, by letting the situation escalate towards a spectacular showdown, the film abandons its most urgent theme, i.e. "the banality of evil". Instead, the evil in this film becomes very colorful indeed.

Eminently watchable and not as bleak as it's made out to be.

Lost in Translation (2003)

Sweet and brimming with atmosphere

[7/10 · 24 February 2005]

True to its title, Lost in Translation forgoes writing and dialogue in favor of richly textured photography, carefully selected music, and subtly implied significance.

It works, up to a point. There's only so much you can convey by implication, and this may leave the movie feeling either pretentious or shallow.

That said, there is an undeniable sensitivity to the production. The camera gorges itself on swirls of grainy color, while delicate and precise editing keeps it from being self-absorbed. The musical choices give off all the right cues and frequently carry entire shots.

All in all a beautifully executed mood piece, if timid in its exploration of the underlying themes.

One Hour Photo (2002)

Blurry and out of focus

[7/10 · 23 February 2005]

Lovingly conceived and produced, what this picture lacks is a movie.

The story is instantly intriguing and the performance by Robin Williams commands deep respect. The photography is intelligent and deliberate, punctuated by flashes of abstract brilliance.

The director very cleverly avoids imbuing the viewer with a false sense of familiarity by keeping the characters at a distance, and shows commendable restraint by not turning the whole thing into a hack-and-slash.

However despite all the craftsmanship and care that went into it, the movie ends up feeling underdeveloped and poorly framed. For some reason it just doesn't quite take you there.

Still worth seeing and I rated it a 7 for effort if nothing else.

The Terminal (2004)

Might as well peel an onion

[1/10 · 5 February 2005]

Tom Hanks plays guileless eastern European character who defeats New York airport security through sheer charm.

Projects a self-serving image of foreigners as hysterical naifs, whose emotional incontinence adorns them with a human warmth that calculating Americans ostensibly have lost.

Spielberg pays a patronizing homage to the Slavic temperament by scoring some vaguely Slavic-themed music and by having Hanks utter a few lines in a charming but unintelligible gibberish dialect that's about as authentic as Taco Bell.

Very sentimental in a highly manipulative way. Provides some vaudevillean comic relief.

AmnesiA (2001)

Doesn't overreach

[5/10 · 5 February 2005]

The great virtue of this movie is that it doesn't try to overreach. It doesn't attempt to dazzle the viewer with breathtaking photography, it doesn't try to stun the viewer with incisive dialogue, it makes no effort to sublimate the ham-fisted psychological drama.

Rather than risk likely failure trying to develop a genuinely original view of human psychology it wallows gratefully in stale and literal-minded Freudian psychoanalysis, replete with Oedipean theme.

There's some occasional bittersweet humor, but never too bitter or too sweet.

Wholly uncharacteristic for this movie is the stellar performance by Fedja van Huet as Alex/Aram, but the director uses all means at his disposal to prevent it from upsetting AmnesiA's deeply cherished drabness.

Scarface (1983)

Grandiose, bloodyminded and implacable

[10/10 · 18 December 2004]

This is one of my all time favorites.

If the movie has a flaw, it's that it comes at you like a raging bull. It doesn't so much engage the viewer as assault him. ''Scarface'' is as voracious and unyielding a production as Tony Montana himself. Nothing is left to the viewer's imagination.

Moroder's languorous synthpop fits the action to a tee. Like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, it wails and gnashes, broods and tugs, a constant reminder of Tony's inexorable fate.

Not so much a tale of caution as a disaster in progress, ''Scarface'' rips across the screen with the unstoppable force of a runaway train.

Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

A cross between mud wrestling and figure skating

[3/10 · 18 December 2004]

It's certainly arousing to see a woman in a skintight motorsuit get smeared in sweat and blood and guts for hours on end and Tarantino certainly revels in the humiliation of his muse.

The camera dwells with relish on her bruised and bloodied face as she pleads with Bill to spare her life, before she gets shot in the head. We share an intimate appraisal of Uma's potential as a comatose sex object. We partake in every painful fumble when Uma, her legs paralyzed and her nightgown drenched in blood, drags herself to safety.

And it goes on and on and on: she gets buried alive, beats her fists into a bloody pulp trying to escape, then, covered in dirt, staggers across the road: a horrible mess of a woman, a mindless zombie. Funny, to be sure. But also something else.

All throughout both films she gets shot, stabbed, slashed and thrown across rooms with such remarkable gusto, and she slams into walls and furniture with such satisfying thuds, that you start to wonder how the hell you're supposed to maintain an attitude of ironic detachment and cool appreciation of Tarantino's kitschy aesthetic.

Underneath the stunning visuals, the beautiful choreography, and clever references, is the rousing lure of sadism and brutality. If only Tarantino would be honest about it, instead of coming up with a paper-thin "strong woman" motif to justify his indulgence.

"Kill Bill" is thrilling and pretty, but also dishonest and demeaning.

The Godfather (1972)

Schmaltzy family epic

[3/10 · 18 December 2004]

This is a movie for people who want to watch fat guys eat pasta.

"The Godfather" confuses sentiment with emotion and nostalgia with authenticity. Like "Goodfellas", it tries to capture something deep and meaningful about loyalty, family, and honor, but in the end manages only to convey that food plays an important role in Italian culture.

Brando's portrayal of Corleone becomes farcical as his brooding look tips over into a vacant stare.

In all fairness this is not an altogether bad movie, but it pales in comparison to the novel by Mario Puzo and deserves to be taken down a notch.

Watch this for the costumes.

Hurlyburly (1998)

Great movie, more theatrical than cinematic

[9/10 · 15 December 2004]

A touching movie about friendship and dependency viewed through the distorting lens of rampant nihilism.

There's a theatrical eloquence to the dialogue that lends it mesmerizing power. It has a literary quality that some people will find unbearably pretentious, but which I found deeply moving.

The movie starts out with a fast paced barrage of hilarious absurdities. As it gets slower and more ponderous it sometimes veers off course, but in a sense this just deepens the sense of human frailty. Similarly the somewhat grasping conclusion does not significantly detract from the film's main thrust.

Acting by Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn and Garry Shandling is absolutely top notch. Chazz Palminteri isn't always as convincing. Excellent showing by Meg Ryan.