Out with a Bang

Hi everyone. This is the end of the Phantasmagoria of Complaints. To explain why, in brief: I find that more and more I want to dedicate my time to pursuits that take me away from my desk chair during the months and moments when I'm not literally chained to it by school work. And so... my time as a mediocre, snarky, internet-based critic of the cinematic arts comes (perhaps mercifully?) to a close.

As a celebratory/conciliatory gesture, I will leave you with some reviews of movies I have seen since last posting ages and ages ago.

Here goes:

Magic Mike: WooWOOO!!!!! Weinerz lollllzzz ^_-

Brave: Meh. Disappointing for various reasons.

The Avengers: Meh... because I didn't care about any of the characters. Bonus points though for having a very reverent fan in the audience-- his drawn out yet quiet comment "goddamnit" when that one guy took a bullet for the team and died made the whole experience worth it.

Sherlock Homes 2: Actually really entertaining to me. I hear it was exactly the same as the first one, of which I didn't have anything resembling a high opinion. Perhaps I was just too distracted during the first one, the experience of which was ruined by a group of truly out of control teenagers who heckled a woman in the theater so much that she had to leave.

Underworld Awakening: Also surprisingly enjoyable. I like Kate Beckinsale, ever since /Cold Comfort Farm/ way back when. And, obviously, vampires and werewolves!

The Hangover 2: Literally exactly the same as Hangover 1. Although... I do have to admit that the photo series at the end of both movies made me want to write a (probably pitifully theoretically underdeveloped) essay on the role of tableaux (and phantasmagoria?) in the movie (and maybe others like it... though I couldn't name any off the top of my head). I can already hear the grad school adviser's voice in my head asking, deadpan, "So, where are you going with this idea?" I don't know. That's why I chose blogging (and now teaching) instead of academ-ing.

Moonrise Kingdom: Thank you, Wes Anderson, for finally making a movie that nears The Royal Tenenbaums in goodness (if not greatness). Bonus points for the excellent timing in the ear piercing scene.

Hugo: Uhhmmm... I failed to find anything redeeming in this silly, boring story. Am I the only one who though this was a total snooze? I thought I would love it due to its connection to early film history. I was wrong.

And with that, the Phantasmagoria fades to black. I have enjoyed writing reviews for the past however long it's been, but it's time for me to move on now. I will be leaving the blog up, however, because there are just too many people who visit to find the time stamp of the shitting scene in Severed Ways. I can't let them down. For that special group of people, this blog is practically a public service.

On a more sincere note. You can always call or email me if you want to hear me complain some more about movies or any other topic. I'll always have opinions and usually some zesty one-liners, just not the time to write that way I would like.

Thank you for reading.

 -Cait

Hesher (2010)

My preliminary response to watching this movie was teenager-text-message-esque. It went something like this:
OMG!! Whaaaaat the helllllll?????
And also a little like this:
awwwwwwwww. :(

Unfortunately, these thoughts, albeit stunningly poetic, do not a legitimate blog post make. An attempt at a slightly more elevated, articulated evaluation follows.

If you don't know already, Hesher is a movie about the harshly arbitrary realities of trying to get through everyday life while dealing with the loss of a loved one. In it, a middle school-ish aged boy named T.J. grapples not only with the untimely death of his mother, but also the subsequent loss of his father to an entirely crippling grief (played with eyebrow raising depth by Rainn Wilson). T.J. has to navigate the uncertain waters of "where to go from here" alone, until one day he encounters the extremely unpleasant, yet well meaning miscreant Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

Hesher was one of those rare, artistically successful movies in which form and thematic content serve each other quite well. In other words, the overall aesthetic effect (editing, mise-en-scene, performances, pacing, etc) helped carry the central ideas of the movie across. Gordon-Levitt's character is a literal manifestation of the feelings of turmoil and lawlessness trauma can create for people who find their whole worlds destroyed overnight. Though some may argue that many of Hesher's antics, and indeed the movie's events overall are totally over the top, they do all serve the central purpose of illustrating how crazy the world can seem when it changes for you brutally and unexpectedly overnight.

Another success of Hesher is that it somehow manages to feel genuine yet fairytale-like, hyperbolic and understated. It never lets you feel predictable sentiments, yet the emotions it manages to convey are indisputably real.

I very much recommend this movie, but only if you are prepared to accept the unexpected.

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

I rented this movie thinking it was another one I'd been looking for for a while, the source of an enigmatic image on a film art textbook from yesteryear. About five minutes into the movie I realized my error but decided to keep watching anyway based on the intriguing nature of the images and story unfolding.

Stranger Than Paradise was an interesting exercise in meandering (non)narrative structure, with the plot seeming to occur to the writer/director Jim Jarmusch spontaneously, bent to the will of the characters (or maybe the actors... or no, maybe the characters?).

Overall it piques the curiosity, semi-satisfies it, and then wanders away of it's own free will. Good for a patient viewer, not so great for people who crave a fully defined plot. It's up to you.

Wit (2001)

A bitter, poignant, and meaningful TV adaptation of a stage play about a professor who has terminal cancer and decides to submit herself to experimental (albeit doomed) treatment for research purposes.

Emma Thompson in the lead role makes you wonder why other actors even bother getting out of bed in the morning.

100% worth your afternoon or evening. Bring tissues and maybe a hint of masochism.

Profoundly moving. Entirely worthwhile.

Waitress (2007)

My, oh my. Gonna bake a pie.

I very much enjoyed this movie, which seemed to me to be a very real representation of a woman's perspective on difficult life decisions. Weighty enough to be meaningful yet light enough to be accessible and enjoyable, Waitress made me laugh, worry, and sigh.

Quirky dialogue and humorous moments that really matched with my sense of what's funny helped. Realism with a dash of fairy tale only made things better.

Overall-- totally worth it if you want to see something different in a good way. Plus you'll be really really hungry for some random berries smashed with chocolate pie by the end of it.

The Craft (1996)

Definitely a major guilty pleasure for a lot of people around my age, The Craft does not fail to delight even fifteen (?!) years after it was made.

Fun fact-- The Craft carries more weight with me now than it did when I was however old when I first saw it because unlike then, I now live where the movie is set-- L.A. in all its grimy glory.

I will not try to claim here that The Craft represents a decent portrayal of Wicca, or even of high school girls and all their awkward 'practice' relationships, but I do maintain that it is hilariously entertaining. Plus the soundtrack is still awesome.

Recommended for an indulgent Sunday afternoon. Smug and incredulous laughs abound.

Secretary (2002)

When I first heard about Secretary from a girlfriend I was skeptical. I did not think I could trust a movie with James Spader in it to treat the subject of BDSM with proper respect, showing the complexities and subtleties of the lifestyle without regressing into some silly caricature of what some straight-laced people think BDSM means/looks like.

But then, after many different girlfriends over many years repeatedly suggested it to me, I finally caved and added it to my queue.

I was pleasantly surprised. Maggie Gyllenhall wields a sweet submissive agency over her (somewhat reluctantly) dominating boss played quite well by Spader. As their romance unfolds we get to see the dynamics of their relationship played out with almost a parable-like flair-- even the erotic scenes are treated such that they carry plenty of meaning (and interest) and still manage void the pitfalls of vulgarity and unnecessary realism.

Overall--recommended if you like something off the beaten path are are comfortable seeing a different kind of hetero relationship than what you usually get at the movies.

Iris (Cirque du Soleil-- Kodak Center, Los Angeles)

Iris (pronounced the French way, "ee-rees") isn't a movie; it's a Cirque du Soleil show that's playing right now at the Kodak Theater (where they film the Academy Awards) in L.A., the theme of which is the history of cinema and movie making.

Needless to say, when I several months ago first saw the advertisements for this show, I was overwhelmed with enthusiasm and excitement. This buoyant feeling almost immediately (and predictably) devolved into anxiety that Cirque would somehow manage to screw it up and thereby incur my wrath for sullying the subject that has been my passion for quite some time now. Despite my apprehension, however, I ended up deciding to go to the show anyway, because I've been fortunate enough to have seen several Cirque shows over the last ten years and I thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Fast forward to September 11th, 2011 (yes, I'm a little behind on my blogging) and you'll find me nearly moved to tears within seconds of being seated before the show starts, because I can see from the get-go that the crazy French Canadian Guy Laliberte (CEO of Cirque du Soleil) has done yet another mind bogglingly competent job putting together a crazy-weird-circus-fantasy spectacle.

My favorite pre-show attraction was the female mime wandering the crowd with a metal contraption surrounding her body. She solicited several people to spin her curious cylinder-skirt, and when no one would do it fast enough to suit her needs she gave it a yank herself. To the delight of the crowd, her skirt (which resembled a film reel turned on its side) revealed itself to be a working zoetrope showing boxers fighting each other in a short, repeated loop. Rewind to February of 2005 and you'll find a fresher-faced me sitting in my history of early cinema class at UC Berkeley watching a very enthusiastic young professor (Professor Kaveh Askari, a graduate of the University of Chicago (?) if you were wondering) demonstrating much smaller versions of the same pre-cinematic device and others like it. This was probably the moment that I decided I loved film and wanted to learn everything about it, and so for the Cirque show to reference it meant a lot to me. (<-- huge understatement) The rest of the show was no different in terms of its emotional impact. Nearly every single aspect connected to some aspect of film as an art form, film history, or film production. Some of the references made were: - Norman McLaren's "Pas de deux"

- Georges Melies' "A Trip to the Moon"

- Edison's "Electrocution of an Elephant" (part of the Cinema of Attractions)

"The Kiss"

- Lotte Reiniger's "Adventures of Prince Achmed"

- Dziga Vertov's "The Man with the Movie Camera" or "The Cinematic Orchestra"

- The Al Jolson film "The Jazz Singer"

- And even what I took as a reference to a particular character from a Hayao Miyazaki film (Howl's Moving Castle)

All these references (and many, many more) were integrated with the usual Cirque spectacle of acrobatics, contortionists, a loose, somewhat dubious romantic narrative that ties the show together, wonderful live music, and some silly clowns which Cirque here opted to use to refer to modern day Hollywood industry stereotypes.

My favorite part was the McLaren reference, because it took a series of dancers and placed them in front of an enormous screen that showed their motion trails, just like in "Pas de deux". I also greatly relished the carnival/vaudeville aspect to this particular Cirque show (though I recognize it's a somewhat common theme throughout them and circus in general), because it connected back to the roots of film as a sort of freak show attraction. I also was just as much impressed by the integration of technology into the acts (I'm thinking in particular of one scene that's incredibly difficult to describe, so I'll leave it up to you to go experience it for yourself) as I was by the skill of the performers, some of whom are Olympic athletes.

I can't say whether many people in the audience understood these myriad references to cinema, but whether or not they did is not important to me. I loved the show because it reminded me of a time in my life not so long ago when I was ruled by a singular passion and drive inspired by the art form of film. Though this time isn't very far distant from me, it feels miles away. Because I am acutely aware of the literal (and metaphorical) distance I've traveled since those glorious days of oblivious (arguably naive) infatuation with my chosen subject of study, Iris moved me quite deeply insofar as it helped me reconnect with past moments in the sun, and I know this intensely personal experience would certainly not be what most people experience on seeing the show.

I highly recommend that you see Iris if you love film and you're in Los Angeles. You won't regret it.

Fright Night (2011)

This extremely entertaining update of the 1985 original has everything I enjoy seeing in a horror movie: humor, low stakes suspense, and an effervescent enthusiasm for making fun of itself.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Fright Night from beginning to end, laughing along with my friends at all the ridiculous moments, most of which were delivered by Colin Farrell, who seemed to luxuriate in making his role seem as hilariously perverted and degrading/deviant as possible. Even when he's sucking blood out a parade of hapless teenagers, Farrell makes it brazenly obvious that what's really happening is intense, unbridled, and inappropriate sexual pleasure. It is extremely entertaining to watch Farrell run with this role, and I think he did a really smart interpretation of it that I'm not sure others could deliver.

The only problems I had with the film were that 1) the vampires were way scarier when they were not CGI enhanced than when they were. The climactic final monster scene was so overdone CGI-wise that I burst out laughing at the site of it. Leave Farrell with his black contacts and creepy just-jizzed-in-my-pants face alone. And 2) the kid playing the main character appeared to be a 30 year old man*. But he still did a good job in his role, as did the Russell Brand lookalike who played a very apropos satire of Criss Angel.

Overall, VERY worth your time, unless you watch the above clip and hate it. Because if you don't get what's funny about that clip, you won't think Fright Night is funny, at all... guy.

*Horrifying realization: he's younger than me.

Sliding Doors (1998)

Since I didn't watch this movie until now, thirteen years (has it really been thirteen years since 1998?!) after it came out, I can only assume I missed the zeitgeist boat on this one.

If you don't already know, the movie is about how different Gwyneth Paltrow's character Helen's life has the potential to be, hinging on whether or not she makes a train one day after getting fired from her job.

Thoroughly and charmingly silly in plot and acting, Sliding Doors feels highly inconsequential all the way through, even when poor Helen (SPOILER ALERT) is lying in a hospital bed dying after tragic accidents that leave her maimed in both alternate lives.

Overall it was an amusingly outdated bit of fluff. Bonus points for the friend who keeps bursting out laughing when something terrible happens to Helen's philandering lover (see the first 60 seconds of the clip). It was what I felt like doing throughout the entire thing.

Blue Valentine (2010)

Ugggghhhhhhhhhhh! Blue Valentine makes me want to die.

But on the other hand.

Uggggghhhhhhhhhhh! It was so good.

Michelle Williams (whom you already know I very much admire) and Ryan Gosling play a couple in a gut-wrenching failing relationship, familiar to anyone who has ever really opened themselves up to another person and watched that connection disintegrate.

We are treated (or maybe subjected) to the whole arc of their relationship from its sweet beginnings to its crushingly meaningless and empty end.

The hardest thing about Blue Valentine is that you're not asked to like or dislike any of the characters. This is also the most valuable aspect of this film. It doesn't take a side. That's up to you, which is incredibly difficult and if you're anything like me could lead to melancholy bouts of relationship oriented introspection.

I can't say I'd recommend this movie to anyone. Not good for anyone looking for a happy ending, obviously, but also surprisingly not so cathartic. More frustrating overall.

Excellent acting, excellent, bold filmmaking. Brave choices all around for everyone involved in making it.

True Grit (1969)

Just as valuable as the 2010 reboot but in different ways.

Props to Kim Darby (Yes, this Kim Darby), for bringing emotion to the table despite the silliness of her voice, acting style, and astoundingly Justin Bieber-like haircut.

When you watch this you'll be treated to another serendipitous and excellent minor role for Dennis Hopper. The more I see of his older work the more I want to watch of everything he's ever done.

I think my favorite part of watching this John Wayne classic was gaining a greater appreciation of the richness of the modern adaptation's roots. Each actor in the update really drew from and yet moved beyond the now charmingly outdated original.

It helped me understand even more why the recent adaptation of True Grit was nominated for best picture. Yay!

Harry Potter Update

So. As some of you may have noticed, I have NOT been keeping up with my self imposed goal of writing one Potter review a month leading up to the big night (which is tonight).

This comes as a result of extreme busy-ness on my part, which, while not unforeseen, nevertheless could not be helped.

As it stands I have Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince sitting on my desk waiting to be watched, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 in my Netflix queue, and a ticket to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 safely tucked away in one of my rendezvous's wallets for later on.

After I finish this post I'll be heading upstairs to prepare coffee for the midnight viewing, which I will be attending with friends who are willing and eager to share in my extremely nerdy enthusiasm for "the end," which sadly and also awesomely begins tonight at midnight.

I'm going as Luna Lovegood, re-imagined as a college student or maybe a young adult going to her Hogwarts 10 year reunion. This is my thinly veiled excuse for not having enough time to brush up and create my props anew. I do, however, still have the wand I made and the robe I grudgingly* bought, both of which will be coming with me tonight to help me fully realize my true potential for ridiculous dress-up play.

Anyway. The long and short of it is that the Phantasmagoria of Potter will continue longer than originally planned.

Thereby prolonging the end a bit longer for you all, which if you're anything like me, isn't such a bad thing at all. -sniff-

*(They didn't even have one in Ravenclaw colors, so I'm hoping I won't catch the eye or the wrath of any rabid purists this evening before the show!)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

What stands out most to me about HP5 is that this installment of the series marks the beginning of the grown-up stuff.

In addition to the real, heavy-hitting incidents that begin to unfold, we also encounter more complicated relationships between friends and family members. Much of the silly stuff is over and done now, with some shockingly dark elements beginning to rear their ugly heads (read: sickening Umbridge, malicious Kreature, weak Cornelius Fudge, and the ever-odious Malfoys).

Rowling also shows her mean streak by yanking the possibility of happiness for Harry out from under him (and, incidentally, us too), in what will be the first of many heartbreaking personal losses in the series.

While HP5 marks an improvement for me in terms of how its depth and complexity compares to what we've seen so far, it also signals the beginning of the end.

-Sigh.- While I can't wait for July 15th, I also dread it.

Who's with me?

Bridesmaids (2011)

I wish movies as enjoyable as this one weren't so rare.

Female characters making jokes that real women often make amongst themselves, and in highly not cliched fashion. A legitimate storyline right along with a variety of types of humor, including (but not limited to) gross-out.

Delightfully unexpected characters mixed in with some familiar faces.

Fantastic!!!!!!!!...!!!

Giant (1956)

Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson play an extremely wealthy couple living on a cattle ranch turned oil field in rural Texas, and a hugely absurd James Dean comes along for the ride.

Rock Hudson's character struggles to overcome his racism against Mexicans, while Elizabeth Taylor's character struggles to look realistically dirty and appropriately upset in the dusty, often hostile setting.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. Even though it went on for two hundred years (it literally had an intermission) and was at times amusingly dated (both visually and subject matter-wise), I genuinely wanted to sit through all the way to the end.

An interesting minor role by Dennis Hopper, who I only really knew for his amusing roles in two of my childhood favorites, Super Mario Bros. (1993) and Waterworld (1995), and of course for his disturbing turn in creepy David Lynch's creepy Blue Velvet (1986).

Bonus points to anyone who can remind me what film essay (assigned during my time at Northwestern) specifically discussed the upsetting/hilarious Thanksgiving dinner scene in which the couple's small children realize they're about to eat the turkey they've been patiently feeding for a month.

Overall: likely to be enjoyable to you if you like Taylor, Hudson, Dean, or movies from the '50s. Otherwise, skip it.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Hey. Everyone! Sorry I didn't post one single blog entry in the entire month of May. It was an intensely busy month, but it was not without movie watching, and neither was June. So consider the emptying of the now substantial backlog officially begun.

Up first, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World!

I waited a long time to watch this movie. When I first saw the previews for it way back when I thought it looked intriguing, but I was hesitant to allow my enthusiasm to grow because I had a tiny paranoid conspiracy that this movie was being marketed to appeal to a very specific subset of young adults to which I definitely (albeit somewhat reluctantly) belong. To make myself clear, I was afraid I was getting sucked in by cheap, glittery, hipster-y advertising tactics rather than by the potential of the movie.

To make matters worse, in the interim between seeing the trailers for Scott Pilgrim and finally watching it on DVD I picked up the comic in a local bookstore and was unimpressed by the illustrations. I'm an avid consumer of graphic novels, and I have to say that if I don't like the illustrations I'm seeing, I don't like the book. So strike two for Scott Pilgrim.

Anyway, the movie finally made its way up in my Netflix queue and I thought I'd give it a try if for no other reason than to have fodder for some actual complaints on this phantasmagoria.

I was pleasantly surprised. I liked the characters, I liked the effects, and I loved the pacing. The aesthetic was pretty cool, and the music was fun. There was some level of complexity there, and the relationships seemed decently real to me. I also really liked this character. Her blinding rage and her ability to bleep her own cuss words were thoroughly entertaining.

Overall, I'd suggest this movie to you if you're into comics/graphic novels, Canada, hipsters, music, hair dye, action/adventure type things, movies about 20-something creative types, Michael Cera, good acting, snappy writing, and good movies.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

I think this is my least favorite HP of the series. Moments like this can begin to show you why. I believe what bothers me about this particular HP installment is sadly obvious in the clip, despite the laughably poor quality of this video. If you don't pick it up, then I think you and I are on very very different pages in terms of movie taste.

But anyway, besides the over-the-top campyness used to portray the two visiting schools of magic, the main problem I have with the movie is that there is neither enough blatant silliness and nor enough disturbing darkness to really draw me into the film as much as the rest of series.

There are a few redeeming features, however, and experience of watching Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire is by no means a waste of time. My favorite aspects of HP4 are MadEye Moody, the portrayal of the nationalistic mania associated with the Quidditch World Cup, and the blunt sucker-punch of Cedric Diggory's death.

Plus, who can help but slyly grin at all of Ron Weasley's vaguely vulgar asides regarding the rear ends of the ladies of BeauxBatons? Certainly not me.

In fact, I find myself clinging to this film in a way, especially knowing what sort of emotional blows await me in the final chapters of the story.

While I look forward to seeing the development of my favorite characters (and the introduction of my alter-ego!) in the films to come, HP4 marks the turning point from which I may look back at the previous films with nostalgia for the innocence portrayed in them.

Source Code (2011)

Inception meets Groundhog Day meets Sisyphus. Plus a little self-indulgent wish fulfillment thrown in for good measure.

I don't want to tell you much about the plot because you'd probably be able to figure out the ending if I gave you even just a few basic details, so I'll just keep it mysterious.

All I want to say about this movie, besides what's above, is that it was pretty entertaining, even to someone who doesn't really like action movies at all. However, it made me really want to smack this lady because she is annoying.

Overall--pretty OK.

Waiting for Superman (2010)

A quietly convincing documentary about the bureaucratic quagmire in which many public schools in the US are dishearteningly lodged.

Eye-opening if you are not often in or around public schools, depressingly familiar if you are.

Generally solid but goes a tiny bit overboard sometimes, most notably while painting the teachers unions with a suspiciously wide (and demonizing) brush, and using too many cutesy animated scenes.

Overall, good information, important message. Decent delivery.

Go ahead and watch it!