Quick Cuts

These capsule reviews of current movies offer a basic overview of what these stories did (or didn't do) to engage an audience. They are not meant to convey a full review of the movie, or a scene by scene breakdown. All reviews by Bill Johnson, copyright 1999-2008.

Twilight

Twilight the novel is a story about sacrifice. The narrative tension in the novel for the main character revolves around her exiling herself to live in a place she detests to make her mother happy. This can be conveyed in a novel because the story is told from the narrator's POV and her states of feeling and her narrative tension. I define narrative tension as the tension a character feels around achieving some goal that the events of a story (or the character's personal beliefs) block them from achieving.

In Twilight the movie, the issue of sacrifice for the main character isn't evoked, so she doesn't generate narrative tension. The character who experiences narrative tension early in the movie is Edward, the 17 year old vampire who is attracted to the novel's main character. He's attracted to Bella, but if he acts on that attraction he puts his 'family' at risk. Like the first Harry Potter movie, it's not until deep in the film, when Bella must act to save her father and Edward's family acts to save Bella, that the movie generates narrative tension.

Both the movie and the book also fail to generate a clear answer to the question, why are Bella and Edward attracted to each other? A recent film about a young vampire that does offer an explanation is Let the Right One In, a recent vampire film from Sweden. The main character here is a young, bullied boy. When he meets a strange, 12 year old girl, it's conveyed that both are lonely outcasts. The narrative tension in Let the Right One In is palpable, and it's a much stronger film.

Synecdoche, New York

A director doing a revival of Death of a Salesman realizes his wife is going to leave him when she comes up with a lame excuse to skip the opening of the play. He then creates an extended, Willy Loman-type fantasy about his life on a giant stage. He has his own, personal, long-suffering Linda (Willy's wife in Salesman) who helps him with the production, with an actress to play his help-mate.

This is wonderful, complex storytelling, fully-realized.

Happy-Go-Lucky

This is put together by a director who allows the cast to improvise. The main character here is 30 year old Poppy, an unnaturally happy young woman. The main thread that holds things together (beside a wonderful performance by the actress playing Poppy) is her run-in with an unnaturally unhappy driving instructor. I haven't seen this kind of volcanic intensity on screen since the captain in Das Boot screaming that the boat go faster.

Poppy also reminded me of another British film, Billy Liar, with the same kind of set-up and question, whether an extreme character could maintain that quality in spite of everything.

This is not for anyone who likes stories with a traditional plot.

Changeling

Changeling is a beautifully composed film with a unclear introduction of the story's promise. Early in the film the issue of responsibility is highlighted in a way that suggests that will be the promise of the story. But the body of the film is about how a mother with a missing son is abused by the police when she protests that the boy they insist is her missing son is not. Then, toward the end of the film, the main character played by Angelina Joline speaks about what it's like to deal with the need to believe that her son is still alive (a belief that in real life she took to her grave). If that had been the promise of the story, that would have required a focus on the other parents of missing children and how they dealt with that.

One problem this lack of a clear promise creates is that it gives Jolie as an actress a situation to play but not a character to play. A film like Chinatown has a story about Jake trying to keep his hands clean in an amoral world (because taking action got a girl killed in Chinatown). Jake trying to keep his hands clean gets Mrs. Mulrey killed in Chinatown. In L.A. Confidential, the story is about illusion, reality, and identity. But you can't say that about Changeling; it's about many things, how men in authority abuse women, how corrupt LA police were at the time, how the police were used for political objectives.

As heartbreaking as the situation is for the mother who's lost her son, it's hard to feel a deep sense of narrative tension. That would require giving the actress a stronger role to play.

Changeling provides a good example of the difference between theme and what I call promise. A theme of Changeling is that the LA police abuse women. The movie proves that theme. One can also use a movie to prove that love is good (or love is painful), death is painful, war is bad, friendship is good, taking time to smell the roses is good, etc. Telling a story is different than acting out any of these themes. A story's promise is a foundation of what a story is about; it's about the totality of a story, in the same sense that a collection of threads can create a beautiful tapestry.

Changeling has many wonderful threads and looks great, but it lacks a quality of being fulfilling.

A historical side note about Changeling, when the killer goes to see his sister, she has a strange, conflicted reaction. In real life, his sister was also his mother.

Ghost Town

The set up here is an anti-social dentist dies for several minutes during a routine medical procedure and wakes up with an ability to see dead people. Dead people who want his help to deal with their unresolved problems and issues with the living. Ultimately deciding to help some of these souls finish their business on earth and pass on, he heals his own wound and is able to regain his humanity.

The film gains some emotional traction when he tries to ingratiate himself with a widow to help her nearly departed pest of a husband move on.

Cthulhu

This film does a good job of creating creeping menance when a young, gay college professor returns home on the death of his mother to a small coastal town in Oregon. The lighting and acting can be uneven, but there are also some beautifully staged scenes. A thougthtful horror film based on an H.P. Lovecraft story.

Righteous Kill

I make a distinction between story and plot and this film illustrates why that's a good idea. The plot here is a serial killer, probably a cop, is killing criminals who eluded the justice system. Fine. The film has all the usual plot twists for this kind of thriller. But the story issue is about losing faith. That issue is raised at the beginning and end of the film. The problem is, that just leaves the actors, among them DeNiro and Pacino, standard plot issues to wrestle with. There's nothing compelling about the story, and not much for the actors to do, because there's no real narrative tension around the outcome of the film.

Burn After Reading

The trailers promote this as a comedy, but the main underlying issue is desperate people trying to get the kind of life they feel entitled too/desire. The film is also a parody of government conspiracy movies. In this film, the all-seeing CIA is mostly befuddled by events that it wants to just go away.

Tell No One

This French film is based on the novel by Hank Coben. The movie offers a good example of how to convert a novel -- which advances through the inner reflections of the narrator -- to a movie which must advance mostly through action. The book does a great job of setting up its story in two opening paragraphs, about how a lie affects a relationship. The movie takes several scenes to establish how much in love two soul-mates have been since they were children.

The opening set up is a the couple being attacked, the wife dying, but eight years later her grieving husband gets an email from the dead wife, that she's still alive; and she warns him to 'tell no one' that he's heard from her. The action of the story is driven by the husband's uncontrollable need to find out what happened to his wife.

Babylon AD

I make a distinction between story and plot, that story is about an issue of human need and plot is the outcome for concrete (generally) events. Films that fail generally introduce what a story is about late in the film, undercutting the impact of the plot. Babylon is unusual because it clearly introduces its story -- about a mercenary who's lost his humanity and who ultimately regains it -- but there's no coherent plot. There's no answer to the question, how does the outcome to this story make the slightest difference?

And that's just the ending. The beginning of the story has a powerful religious cult hiring a mercenary to transport the equivalent of the mother of the next messiah from Mongolia to New York...starting off in a car, then getting onto a trained in a bombed out train station and riding across a bombed-out landscape ruled by miltias and other heavily-armed groups. Why not use a plane? Not even a bother for an explanation (for example, that the chaos has made the area a no-fly zone). Just about everything to do with what would be called backstory is absent from the film.

Hellboy II

This is beautifully made, but without Hurt to create a moral center for the film the elements didn't quite work as well for as the first Hellboy film. It felt busy to me.

Hancock

Hancock starts out with one plot, about a drunken, loutish superhero who decides to try and reform with the help of a failed PR guy, then jumps into a second plot about half way through the film. Something like this can be done - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is an example of a film that grows more complicated as it advances. The script for Hancock really needed more work to weave together all the elements of the film. Or it could have been two films.

Prom Night

What's interesting about this slasher film is why it fails, while another film like The Ruins at least tells a story.

The film opens with a teenage girl coming home to find a sadistic stalker killing her family. She hides, terrified and trembling. Go to the end of the film, and the girl once again survives, terrified and trembling. So, the 'arc' for the character is non-existent. She ends the film the same way she began.

There's no set-up for the man who stalks her, why he chose her. So in the first half of the movie there's no real connection between the two characters, and no real tension around his arrival back in town.

So, the main thrust of the film, people die, the killer dies, the movie is over. The film has some technical quality, but nothing visually interesting is done; no ideas about what it means to be a teen with a past (like Scream develops).

Indiana Jones

Fun opening sequence, then the story and plot become a muddle, with not much excitement and action sequences that feel borrowed from the earlier movies in the series. Structurally, there's not much of a goal early in the film; it's a search for someone who's missing, and what it means and why it's important doesn't feel vital. The film also lacks a great villain.

Iron Man

This is a muscular, enjoyable action film that takes the time to develop characters alongside the action. And, unlike many super hero movies who are given powers, Iron Man is created by the hero, played by Robert Downey, Jr. Downey is joined by Gywneth Paltrow as his assistant, a role she gives life and heart to, and includes Jeff Bridges, who plays a wonderfully smarmy villain.

The set up for Tony Start's character is to go from being unresponsible to responsible.

Highly recommended to fans of action films.

Deception

This is a film in the mold of Malice, where the main character goes from being a patsy to, in the words of someone in Malice, getting 'in the game.' But, the main character in Deception also goes from being dead inside to alive. This creates a problem in structure, since it's not clear what the arc is for the main character, dead to alive or patsy to player. This is compounded by the fact that for a stretch of about 20 minutes, the main character, a mild accountant, experiences life as a member of a sex club, which is interesting and connects to his going from being dead to alive, but not from being a patsy to a player in a con game. And these problems are compounded by every deception in the story being flagged, unlike those that were hidden in Malice. A careful viewer is always aware of what's coming next.

The Ruins

This is a horror film in the vein of The Descent. The main characters are developed before the action turns grim, and no one does anything stupid. The story explores how people deal with fear.

Young at Heart

A group of elders in their 70's, 80's and 90's sing rock and roll classics and punk rock tunes. This is a poignant, sweet-natured documentary. Some of the drama comes from wondering which of the performers will be dead by the time of a concert performance.

The Band's Visit

A formal band from Egypt gets lost in Israel and ends up spending the night in a small Israeli town. English is the linqua franca, and as the night goes on, human connections happen. A strong sub-plot is the formal leader of the band reconciling with a young man who reminds him of a son who committed suicide.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

posted 2/19/2008

This is a film aimed at a younger audience, with some good story mechanics. The underlying story is about a family rebonding. The main character, a young boy, has some serious issues with anger and impulse control when his parents are going through a divorce; he wants to live with his father instead of his mother, meek brother, and a strong-willed older sister. The chronicles of the story were created by his grandfather who learned how to perceive the unseen world of fairies, goblins, and sprites, putting himself and his daughter in danger from trolls and orges. When the young boy opens that book, he must act to save his family.

There are a few scenes that might be too scary for children under five; I sat near one in the theater, who cried in terror.

The Eye

posted 2/3/2008

This horror film is a remake of a Korean film. The set up is that a blind woman who gets a cornea transplant is now able to see spectral wraiths escorting the newly dead to the afterlife. The film has some 'boo' moments, but the structure of the story undercuts the drama. For most of the film, the main character is trying to convince a doctor that she's not crazy, she's really seeing wraiths escorting people to the afterlife. It's not until deep into the film that the actress has a stronger goal, finding out about her donor to discover why she now has second sight.

There's not much drama in the film to go along with the boo moments. Stronger acting could have helped, but with this kind of story structure problem, it's hard for an actor to overcome not having a clearly defined goal or purpose.

The film also has a slow pace, which means people like me have time to wonder about the 'rules' that govern what's happening. At different times in the film the wraiths are showing up to escort the newly dead to the afterlife, making sure someone dies, and showing up before people die. This allows the film to create a climax based on these shifting rules, but it's not as powerful as it could be. That's a typical problem in a film where the rules change (or the tone) to set up a climax. The climax happens, but it lacks power because it doesn't fully connect to what came before.

The Golden Compass

posted 12/15/2007

The set up for the story is that the main character, a young girl, lives without rules in a society with an organization that wants everyone to live by its rules. Unfortunately, once you get past the set up, the girl doesn't have much of a goal other than reacting to events, so it's hard for the story to develop narrative tension around her actions. Other characters, including an armored bear, do have goals and hence narrative tension when blocked from achieving what they seek. The movie ends with the title character having some clear goals, so the movie operates as an extended set up for the next film.

I hadn't read the book the movie is based on but I did read some reviews that spoke about the movie and the book, so I felt comfortable following the action.

The movie demonstrates once again that a big budget doesn't overcome story structure problems.

No Country for Old Men

posted 11/28/2007

This is a great film, with dialog to die for. The story is about how ordinary people deal with someone capable of extreme violence. The plot mainly revolves around whether a hunter can get away with some drug money he came across.

Recommended.

The Darjeeling Limited

posted 11/27/2007

I love Rushmore and The Royal Tenebaums. This film comes across as the director and actors having a good time. Some interesting visuals. When some people become successful enough, you end up in a place like this, where no one seemed to have the authority to say 'come back when you have a good script' to everyone involved.

Killer of Sheep

posted 11/26/2007

This ultra low-budget film by Charles Burnett is about life in Watts in the 1970's and about what various people do to survive, including neighborhood children. The main character works in a slaughter house for sleep and can't sleep at night. Wonderful acting. Available on NetFlix.

The Mist

posted 11/25/2007

The set up for the plot is that a mist covers a small town and large, unearth-like creatures begin killing people. The main plot question, who will survive? The people inside a store must choose between waiting for help or walking out into the mist. The story here is what fear leads people to do, with the larger group breaking into different factions.

The fear factor works best when what is in the mist is unseen.

What I enjoyed most about the film is that no one makes bad choices during the first half of the film; people simply make choices based on their fear and some of them are bad choices that get them and others killed.

Wristcutters: A Love Story

posted 11/13/2007

The set up is that a young man commits suicide and ends up in a drab afterlife populated by others who have committed suicide. When the young man discovers his girl-friend committed suicide a month after he did, he goes on a road trip to find her. When he and his companion pick up a hitchhiker, complications ensue. This is a shaggy dog story, with most of the characters eccentric and odd. In the end, the young man discovers love in this barren place.

This kind of structure -- a character has to lose everything to discover what's important to them -- is found in many films and stories. When it's done well, it works.

We Own the Night

posted 10/19/2007

This film wants to be great, in the mold of some of the 70's films like the Godfather, but it fails. One example sets out why. A young man manages a nightclub; his life is booze, dope, good times, and a sexy girlfriend. But when his brother and father, who are cops, are attacked, he gives up that life to help put away the men threatening his family. The girlfriend goes right along as he radically changes his life and becomes a cop. Why? The movie provides no answer.

Buddha's Lost Children

posted 10/12/2007

A former kick-boxer in Thailand becomes a monk who takes in abandoned children to feed and teach spiritual discipline. This documentary follows his treks to villages in the Golden Triangle, where the villagers are poor and, in some cases, addicted to drugs. When a horse is injured, everyone sets up camp until the horse is ready to travel again. A look at the spiritual life, and what it looks like when life -- all life -- is valued. Recommended.

Eastern Promises

posted 10/10/2007

When a nurse tries to track down the family of a dead woman's new baby, she becomes involved with the Russian mafia in England and a chauffeur infiltrating the mob. The plot is about whether she and the baby will survive; the story revolves around people trying to flee Russia for the promise of a better life and a character trying to help the people being preyed upon.

Some realistic violence.

The Jane Austen Book Club

posted 9/29/2007

I think Jane Austen is one of the world's great novelists, so watching a movie with characters talking about her books is easy for me to like. This is an ensemble piece, with six characters reading and discussing Austen's books, and some of the issues in their lives reflecting the character's in Austen's novels. I went along for the ride, but this movie might not work for others. Another example of how a viewer like me can enjoy a particular film for reasons that have nothing to do with the film itself.

Mr. Woodcock

posted 9/20/2007

There are a few laughs here, but this movie has the same problem as School for Scoundrels, which also featured Billy Bob Thorton and a nebbish, weak character to oppose him. The movie shuffles along and tends to hit plot points late and shifts tone (like the movie Sunshine) to get to a climax. This is mostly about someone who teaches others how to leave their past behind them as a way to be happy in the present, except he's unable to leave his past behind him and be happy. It's hard to care what happens to him, which is a difficult flaw to overcome.

Moliere

posted 9/5/2007

Both this film and Becoming Jane have the same conceit, that each author drew from particular life events to write some of their most well-known material. As I writer, I found this giving credit to the events rather than the authors, so I could never quite enjoy either film. In another situation, a friend who was a retired boilermaker could not read past the first page of the novel The Fight Club because a revolver was 'silenced' by having holes drilled in the barrel, which is nonsense. So he couldn't read any more. Another friend grew up around horses and the 'stampede' of overweight farm horses presented as stallions in Legends of the Fall made her laugh.

The Bourne Ultimatum

posted 8/20/2007

Well-made, well-acted action film. Bourne completes his journey to discover who he really is.

Stardust

posted 8/12/2007

This movie has a lavish look, dry wit, and many special effects, but, unlike Princess Bride, it takes most of the movie to generate some emotional connection between the two leads. There's an issue here of chemistry between the actors, but also an issue of the set up of the story and plot keeping a distance between them. Ultimately this is about a young boy who refuses to accept a common fate in life.

Sunshine

posted 8/8/2007

This movie has some beautiful visuals and a spaceship meant to appear realistic, but there's a kind of boogie-man who shows up at the end and takes the film into Alien territory. The message of the boogie-man doesn't quite connect to what's happening and also creates a shift in tone, so the last half hour of the movie has suspense but not the fulfillment of a promise.

Evening

posted 7/18/2007

The structure of this film is a dying woman in the present remembering events of her life when a close friend married. The past is more dramatic than the present, since it's hard to turn a woman dying in bed into drama. A character sums up the story toward the end of the film with a line that sometimes all one can do in life is muddle through and not be paralyzed into inaction by bewildering choices or unintended consequences analyzed in hindsight.

1408

posted 7/4/2007

The plot set up here is a writer who makes a living debunking ghost stories finding himself in a hotel room that really is haunted. The deeper story issue is the main character's forced conversion to an understanding that the supernatural exists. At one point there's a resolution that suggests what's happening is psychological (based on grief over the death of a daughter), but then the film adds another twist.

There are many effective 'boo!' moments in this film. These work more often than not because I was engaged by the main character, played by John Cusack, and his issues were set out early in the film. The Mothman Prophesy is an example of a film loaded with 'boo!' moments, but the issue the main character brought to the story was introduced at the end of the film, so the artificial scares happened in a void.

Live Free or Die Hard

posted 7/3/2007

This is a popcorn movie, with increasingly big action scenes. It's interesting to consider the Die Hard films in terms of Aristotle's unity of action. The first and best film contains the action mostly in one place. Die Hard develops a powerful climax of action and emotion. There's a real payoff. The second film splits the action into two places, and hits some powerful but weaker notes than the first film. The third film has much running about a city and feels forced. This latest film travels around New York and West Virginia and it's hard to feel a connection between characters (and drama over outcomes) until characters collide at the end.

Pirates of the Caribbean

posted 6/7/2007

Spiderman 3

posted 5/15/2007 One reason to introduce a story's promise early in a film is to give the events, action, character issues and dialog a context, a sense of dramatic purpose. This movie is a great example of what happens when a story promise is muted or fragmented (is Spiderman 3 about losing yourself, making choices, forgiveness, etc.) The problem here is compounded by three different villains and an alien parasite. The promise of the film is what should connect all these threads; absent a strong promise, the film just travels along different threads that ultimately come together, but with little fulfillment. When a story has one main character who is opposed by one villain, it's easier to create a story line. The more characters and villains, the greater the need for a strong promise to create a clear, dramatic purpose that connects every character.

The Namesake

posted 5/5/2007

Darkon

posted 5/5/2007

The Invisible

posted 5/3/2007

Disturbia

posted 4/15/2007

Disturbia has a teenage boy under house arrest who can't go farther (or further) than 100 feet from a signal box. When he suspects a neighbor is a serial killer (he passes his time spying on the neighbors), the plot question is, if this is true, how will he prove it? The film takes care of business getting to an answer (although the climax in the neighbor's house seems to happen in a different movie). What the film lacks is a deeper quality of storytelling, since it's obviously designed to be an updating of Rear Window. Where Window is about the psychology of the characters, with the neighbor bumping off a troublesome wife mirroring what Jimmy Stewart might like to do to Grace Kelly as she maneuvers him toward an altar. Disturbia has a good plot, but there's nothing underneath.

The Host

posted 3/25/2007

This South Korean horror film is in the quirky, humorous mode of Tremors. An American military officer has a chemical dumped into the Han river in Seoul, creating a fish-like mutated monster that begins devouring the locals and taking away a small girl for a later meal. Her dysfunctional family that runs a snack stand by the river can't convince anyone she's called them on a cell phone and is trapped in a sewer, so they escape from the authorities (who are trying to pass off all the mayhem as a virus like SARS). The basic plot question is whether the little girl will survive; the story is about how the situation pulls the family together.

The tone of the movie veers from heart-felt to slapstick. That ultimately undermines the overall impact of the story, but I enjoyed this and recommend it to those who like quirky horror.

The Lives of Others

posted 3/24/2007

A Stasi officer (the East German secret police) takes on the mission of getting something incriminating on a popular playwright so a state minister can have the playwright's girlfriend without complications. The plot question is straightforward, can the playwright avoid arrest and imprisonment for challenging the authority of the state? The story question here revolves around the Stasi officer who finds himself, in bugging the playwright's apartment and listening in, exposed to what it's like to have a life and thoughts and to experience love. He's drawn in to protect the playwright at the loss of his job. Years later, the playwright discovers what the Stasi officer did to save him. The fulfillment of the story is the transformation of the Stasi officer.

Recommended.

Little Children

posted 3/12/2007

A major difference between literary fiction and a Hollywood movie is that a literary novel often is told from within the point of a main character or characters. Readers experience what the characters experience, think about, feel; share illumination of ideas. A powerful literary novel can have unsympathetic if compelling dramatic characters. Hollywood movies are more often about what is happening on the screen, with questions about the outcome of the action supported by dialogue, with a main character who is often sympathetic. Little Children tries to bridge that gap by having a narrator who relates what the main characters are feelings and what they are thinking. Since narration that simply points out the obvious can be tedious, the narrator also offers observations not shared by the characters.

The set up for the story is that the main characters in the film have all passed the age of 25 without growing up. Characters make decisions without much thought, and are mostly unsympathetic.

The movie is beautifully composed and acted, but it might fail to engage people used to Hollywood films, and be found to lack depth by those who read literary fiction.

Bridge to Terabithia

posted 3/9/2007

Jesse is a young boy from a poor family living on an isolated farm. He's an artist without understanding what that means until a new girl in his school teaches him about the power of imagination. Terabithia is a place they create together. This is a sweet-natured story about being fully awake in life instead of being trapped by external conditions.

At the viewing I attended, just about everyone in the audience were adults.

The Number 23

posted 3/1/2007

It's hard to break down all the problems in this movie. It's mostly about obsession until the end, when it's revealed the story is about choices. Unfortunately, everyone who gets out of bed in the morning (or afternoon, or evening, or even not at all) has choices to make. So, telling a story about choices is different then announcing it's what a story is about to create a plausible climax/revelation out of a stew of a plot. There's a great reliance on voice over in the first half of the film, and an over-reliance on explanations of the plot at the end, so sitting in the theatre watching the movie involves hearing everything that's happening being explained. Carrey manages to pull off a mild-mannered man with a dark alter-ego, but not a mild-mannered man going crazy. As often happens when something in a movie breaks down, there's plenty of time to think about the problems.

Astronaut Farmer

posted 2/23/2007

This movie has two sides. One is a charming, quirky fable about a man with a dream of building a rocket on his ranch that will launch him into space, how this dream gives his life meaning, and how the dream gives a purpose to his family. On this side of the movie, why people dream, and what it means to have no dreams, is explored in a heart-felt way. The plot question here is obvious, will he succeed?

The second side of the film is about why the government has rules about people building what will probably be a huge bomb in a populated area. This part of the film occurs in a story world where the rules of common sense don't apply, and a giant rocket can take off from inside a wooden barn and leave the barn intact instead of what would, in reality, be reduced to a small piles of smoking sticks. People who would be reduced to burnt corpses by the rocket's flames are unscathed.

I stayed mostly on the charming fable side and enjoyed the film, but it took an effort. An underlying issue here is what happens when realistic and unrealistic elements are mixed in a story.

The Guatemalan Handshake

posted 2/19/2007

This film by writer/director Todd Rohal is in the quirky, odd vein of The American Astronaut and Repo Man. The set up for the story is a young girl's voice over that in a demolition derby, the 'winner' is typically too battered to move and almost destroyed by events. That's a commentary on the lives of the characters, who are a collection of odd people and a sick turtle, in the vein of Napoleon Dynamite. A set up for the plot is an accident at a nuclear power plant.

The story is not linear and not logical, but the camera work is inventive and engaging and the characters interesting.

Not for everyone, but a real gem for those who love the off-beat.

The Bridge

posted 2/17/2007

This documentary by Eric Steel explores the lives of people who have committed or attempted suicide by jumping off the Golden State Bridge. Footage is shown of those on the bridge as they hesitate, pace, ponder, then often casually climb over a railing and jump to their deaths; this footage is interspersed with interviews with family and friends. The documentary gives voice to those left behind as they struggle to deal with what they might have said or done, or whether it would have made any difference. Movies tend to wrap up a significant character's death in a neat, dramatic package. This documentary shows what can be left behind with someone's death.

Marie Antoinette

posted 1/21/2007

A difficulty in turning someone's life into film is to avoid a structure of 'this happened, then that happened.' A good story, unlike life, is more than just a sequence of events; it's that something that gives meaning to a life. One way to discover the underlying purpose of a life story is often to see where a character ends. In this film, Marie Antoinette makes the transition from a sheltered teenage girl to a woman strong enough to meet her fate. But, that means the question of whether Marie will make that transition needs to be framed as a question in the beginning of the film, in the same way that in Lost in Translation, the young girl's issue of being lost is set out early.

What happens instead is that viewers are, in the first third, shown Marie going to France as a naive young girl and slowly realizing the depth of her dilemma if she can't get pregnant by her doltish husband. Then the movie begins to skip through periods of the next several years of Marie's life, as a young girl who spends lavishly on her whims; as a young mother; then her attempts to seek out a life separate from the rigid protocol of the court; taking on a lover; then facing the mobs of France.

But instead of building toward a powerful fulfillment, the film simply offers another take on Marie's life, that she was more complex than the woman from the history books. That idea is a starting place for a story, but an idea is not a story.

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

posted 1/19/2007

This is a beautifully shot and composed fairy tale for adults. A young girl travels with her pregnant mother to a villa controlled by her new husband, a captain in Franko's forces fighting to eliminate some hold-outs from the Spanish civil war. The captain is cruel and determined that his new wife will provide him a son. The young girl rebels and finds himself conversing with a Faun that gives her three tasks to perform before she can regain her heritage as the daughter of the king of the underworld.

The film travels between the underworld and the conflict between the captain and the local resistance fighters and their supporters. In the end, the girl does what she believes to be right at great cost to herself.

In an interview, the director and author of the script, Guillermo del Toro, spoke about the underworld creatures being symbolic of human types (the rich, for example). Characters in a story (human, alien, monster, symbolic) ring true because they have some purpose in a story's world. Characters in a story fail to ring true when a story's purpose is obscure or muted. In Pan's Labyrinth, the characters are suggestive in an artistic, fantastic manner.

The Good Shepard

posted 1/15/2007

This is a thoughtful, slow film about the birth of the CIA and how a life of secrets and duplicity affects the main character played by Matt Damon. Damon plays his character as analytical and emotionally reserved, so the film doesn't gain much emotional traction until he must deal with how his life has affected his wife and now adult son. The plot revolves around who leaked information about the Bay of Pigs invasion and whether a top level Russian defector is who he claims to be.

In the end, Damon's character is left to ponder the cost of his choices.

The structure of the story revolves around several time periods that ultimately gives some answers about Damon's life and answers to some plot questions.

This film would have more appeal to those interested in the birth of the CIA. The story is often more interesting than gripping.

Flags of Our Fathers

posted 12/19/2006

This is an ambitious film. The scope of the early film is not just war for individuals, but for a country at war in need of heroes. This is introduced through a narrator. But the larger focus requires a tight focus on what the story is about, and the creation of a story line so the action of the plot through multiple characters and events creates a powerful fulfillment. Unfortunately, the elements don't all work together toward this end. As the story begins to focus on the men who would be proclaimed heroes of the battle for Iwo Jima, some potently refuse the honor, and it takes a good part of the film to fully understand why (they were actually part of a second team to raise the flag after a battle to gain the heights of the island). The battle scenes are more dramatic and compelling than the scenes about the soldiers being sent on tour to sell war bonds. During this touring, a soldier named Ira comes to the fore, and seems to be taking the lead as a main character. But the film then reverts to a new narrator, this time the son of one of the soldiers who helped raise the second flag. This ties into the larger focus on why a nation needs to create heroes, but it dilutes a sense of what the film is about and who the main character is. With the shift to a second narrator, the movie's fulfillment becomes diluted.

A strong attempt to create a masterpiece about war.

The Departed

posted 12/17/2006

This film takes the time to set up the backstory of two young men growing up in South Boston. Each grows up to join the State police, but one goes deep undercover to bring down a local mob boss, while the other joins a special investigations unit trying to bring down Frank Costello (loosely based on Whitey Bulger, a real mob boss in South Boston). The early set up deepens the tension as the two characters must quickly figure out who to lie to and who to tell the truth to, in situations that have fatal consequences.

Recommended.

In real life the question of whether Whitey Bulger, an FBI informant, used his FBI handler for his own ends was never clearly established.

Shortbus

posted 12/15/2006

The director of this film started out with the intention of using sex in a dramatic film in a non-pornographic way by making the characters and their issues the focus of the film. But, the director also allowed the actors to be part of developing the story. The film ends up setting up a central point, that sex doesn't equate intimacy, but then doesn't do much with the point. Some story threads are weaker than others.

Stranger Than Fiction

posted 11/25/2006

This is a funny, cheeky, and, ultimately, heart-felt story about a life-less IRS auditor who discovers he's the creation of an author with writer's block. What she's trying to figure out is how to kill her latest novel's main character, Harold Crick. Harold begins to hear the author's voice narrating her novel and his life and realizes that his death is approaching.

The plot of the story is whether Harold can change his fate and not die; the story is about how Harold, facing death, comes to life.

Although the film is billed as a comedy, like many good comedies the story is heart-felt. We share Harold's journey.

I never thought I'd hear the name Italo Calvino mentioned in a Hollywood movie.

The Black Dahlia

posted 9/19/2006

The Black Dahlia is Chinatown without Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston, Roy Jenson, Roman Polanski, and an intelligent screenplay. The film is a large collection of plot threads that come in waves, but not with a deeper, potent unity that connects them. The tone wavers from realistic to camp, the acting from inexpressive to over the top. The Black Dahlia murder investigation is actually a very small part of the story; the actress who plays Betty Short in film tests, Mia Kirshner, makes a strong, subtle impression as a not very talented young woman trying to make it in Hollywood.

Visually interesting.

The Illusionist

posted 9/1/2006

I make a distinction between story and plot; that story is an issue of human need or idea about life that is fulfilled by the action or events of a story; and plot is about what happens, and offers resolution. In The Illusionist, a young, poor boy is forceably separated from the young girl he loves because she comes from an aristocratic family. He travels the world and becomes a great magician and returns to turn of the century Viena, where he discovers his young sweetheart is now a princess about to be engaged to the crown prince, who considers himself a rationalist. The plot question is, will he be able to help his renewed sweetheart 'disappear' in a way that he couldn't as a young boy. The story appears to revolve around whether the main character is a magician or has special powers to raise the dead and do other unexplainable-by-magic feats. As more and more people flock to his performances, the question arises whether he might become the focal point for a new kind of society that doesn't need crown princes or monarchs.

The film, which is artistic in design, brings up issues of class, but the focus is mostly on the magician and his efforts to get his beloved away from the prince; and the realization of a police inspector that he can be a detective or the prince's toady, but he can't be both. That ties into the issue of class, but presenting an idea is not the same as doing something with it. When the prince talks about the different types of common folk needing a monarch to rule them, it doesn't particular fulfill something vital. Hence the film has a weak ending. Resolution, but not a deeply felt fulfillment.

The film is a pleasure to watch.

Snakes on a Plane

posted 8/23/2006

The title sums up the movie and the embedded plot question, who will survive and how? And the first wave of attacks do have some visceral, scary jolts. Then the movie seems to be running down a check-list for different parts of anatomy snakes can bite, then the expected plot complications happen in the expected order. The action is solid and the dialogue is serviceable but nothing special.

There are a few moments of feeling among the characters, but nothing that rises to the level of giving the action a purpose that ties together what's happening to who the characters are. For example, an opening sequences demonstrates that a main character is a thrill seeker, but that doesn't connect to anything else in the film.

Pulse

posted 8/14/2006

I went to see this film in spite of the weak reviews. The structure of the film has a classic flaw; what it's about is narrated as the last line of the film, about the dead having a will to return to life equal to that of the living trying to survive an onslaught of the dead. But, for the first half of the film, the main characters simply respond to increasingly strange events. Since there's no real story or plot (since the characters are unaware of what's really happening), the actors can only respond to events in lieu of playing characters who define themselves based on what they want, and what they are willing to do to get what they want. This leaves the actors with little to do except pose for the camera and try and emote whatever a scene calls for.

I've read that the original Japanese film this is based on is an exercise in creepiness and looming dread. That kind of tone can be hard to make 'work' in a Hollywood style film aimed at a larger audience. The shooting style of extreme close ups happens in a void. It didn't connect to anything that was happening.

The movie does toss out the idea of characters being connected in so many ways with cell phones and email and the ghosts attacking through these devices. But tossing out the idea isn't the same as doing something with it.

The Descent

posted 8/10/2006

This is a well-made, thoughtful horror film. It's also a lesson in how a group of characters can be made distinct through visual cues and a few lines of dialogue that define characters. The film is in the mold of Scream in that the audience is asked to relate to the characters instead of a typical Hollywood horror film where characters exist to die in unusual ways.

The main character here is a woman who's been unable to overcome her depression after the untimely death of her husband, which comes about in a freakish accident caused by her awareness that something is seriously wrong with her marriage. The story then jumps forward a year to a regathering of women with the goal of taking the depressed woman on a journey into a safe cave exploring experience. But someone decides instead to take everyone into an unexplored cave.

In the end the main character finds within herself a primal will to survive.

At one point I felt sorry for the human monsters closing in on the transformed heroine.

This is powerful storytelling, but not for everyone. People who are claustrophobic or not used to movies that evoke real terror should give this a pass.

Lady in the Water

posted 7/29/2006

This film is a good example of the difference between personal storytelling and telling a story to an audience. The story apparently started as a bedtime story M. Night Shyamalan told his children. So the plot has the logic of a bedtime story. Every few minutes there's another revelation about a bigger menace or situation that must be resolved. What also makes this personal storytelling is that the characters all just assume their roles with no question (which requires them to accept immediately that a mysterious girl is from another realm and they are chosen characters in her purpose here).

Personal storytelling doesn't require a plot, or a point, or character development; it just requires action that validates the storyteller in some way. Here, M. Night Shyamalan is a writer who's work will save the world. The film becomes Mr. Shymalan's personal fantasy brought to life; his validation of himself.

Many people create story worlds where they (the main character is typically an extension of the storyteller) are respected, loved, bedded, acknowledged as heroes, worshipped. This kind of work is aimed at fulfilling the needs of the storyteller, not the needs of an audience.

Another aspect of personal storytelling is the desire to vent; here, Mr. Shymalan gets to kill a film critic (critics haven't been thrilled by his recent films). I'm sure the moment of the death of this representative critic thrilled Mr. Shymalan (even the other characters come to loath the critic). And I assume some people will enjoy seeing a critic get torn apart. But it's personal storytelling because not much is done to get the audience involved or invested in the character who dies, other than enjoying his death.

Personal storytelling also requires no explanation of symbols. The otherworldly characters here are given no real back story, like one would find in The Lord of the Rings or many other fantasy stories. Personal storytelling doesn't require plausibility or history or much thinking at all; it just requires symbols and characters and events that resonate with the storyteller or his children.

The Great Yokai War

posted 7/27/2006

Every film I see by Japanese director Takashi Miike is a unique experience. This latest film was promoted as a children's film, and, indeed it is, which was more surprising to me than anything else Miike has done.

The story is about a young boy coming of age and learning the difference between being a child and an adult. The plot revolves around a war between mythical creatures, the Yokai, rooted in Japanese folklore. The film-making is clever and inventive, a visual treat.

Superman

posted 7/5/2006

I expected to love this film. For me it failed on the basic level of what does Superman want? Something that would translate into a clear, dramatic, compelling story question. I know he's in love with Lois Lane, but what does he want that hasn't already been played out in the other movies? The movie starts to generate some dramatic tension as events bring Superman and Lex Luthor together, but that's late in the film.

The Devil Wears Prada

posted 7/4/2006

A mid-Western college graduate gets a job at a glossy fashion magazine on a whim by the editor even though the young girl has no fashion sense, has never heard of the editor, and doesn't see the job as that important in her life. As the young woman becomes invested in the job, she becomes a fashion maven and on-call 24 hours a day to her demanding boss. This leads to the breakup of her relationship with a young man.

In storytelling terms, the underlying dynamic is that when the young woman's life alters so dramatically, her once stable relationship falls apart. Any time two people are in a stable relationship, and one of them undergoes a life-altering change, there can be great drama over whether a relationship can continue.

Click

posted 6/25/2006

Adam Sandler is an angry man-child who finds it difficult dealing with life and marriage to a beautiful wife, paying bills, raising two kids, and dealing with a demanding job/boss. When Christopher Walken offers him a universal remote, he discovers that he can fast forward through unpleasant experiences and then the hum drum of life. The first half of the film is slap stick humor around his realization of what he can do with the remote.

The second half is his belated discovery of what happens when the remote begins to fast forward him through life, letting him experience only the high lights, a job promotion, the marriage of a son, etc. But he's lost all connection to his family and his own life. This half of the film becomes more heart felt, but still mixed with slap stick humor.

The lesson he learns is that family is what's important in life.

The shifts in tone will jar some; overall, the film takes care of business.

The Lake House

posted 6/25/2006

The stars of The Lake House are the director and production crew. They knew how to stage scenes and shoot the actors in a way that make the story heartfelt and make the story work as well as it does. The set up for the plot is that a man and woman share a house, but two years apart, and through messages left in a mail box they fall in love. Eventually they meet.

The plot works to the degree movie-goers want to see the couple get together.

The Da Vinci Code

posted 5/23/2006

I've only read the first three chapters of the book (about five pages in). From watching the movie, I get a sense of what made the plot of the novel compelling, but no idea of what made the main character in the novel compelling. In the movie, Tom Hank's character is along for the ride, offering interpretations of symbols but rarely personally involved in the action. Toward the end of the film another character suggests that Hank's character was now involved in history rather than a passive observer of the past. At the end of the film an issue of faith pops up. The result is that while the film offers resolution of what happened to the grail, there's almost no fulfillment of a story promise that connects to the main character. Oddly enough, just about everyone else in the film is defined by what they want and what they are willing to do to get what they want.

The film reminded me of the first Harry Potter movie, which was like a coffee table edition of the book. Similarly, The Da Vinci Code looks good and is probably faithful to the plot and basic outlines of the characters, but lacking the narrative tension of the novel.

The movie also would have benefited from a thoroughly creepy albino and a Catholic bishop with a face that embodied all the pain and weariness of this world, in place of the competent actors playing the roles.

In the end I think people who've read the book will enjoy the movie more than others, and some people will enjoy the historical sweep of the film. Overall it's well done, but slowly paced.

Thank You For Smoking

posted 5/8/2006

This satirical film is about a spin doctor who works for the cigarette industry; he faces an increasingly difficult job of promoting the idea that the then known health issues associated with smoking were not scientific fact. The deeper story issue is whether the spin doctor will turn his son into his successor.

Silent Hill

posted 4/30/2006

The film is visually interesting and mind-numbingly dull; the first third of the film is a mother at a track meet screaming her daughter's name every fifteen seconds. Later the father shows up and walks around shouting his wife's name every thirty seconds. When someone finally explained the plot, I must have missed a few lines because I wasn't quite sure who lets loose the mayhem that frames the climax.

People who play the video game will, I assume, enjoy the film more than anyone else.

Lucky Number Slevin

posted 4/10/2006

The set up for this film is hidden in plain sight. The plot revolves around what appears to be twin cases of mistaken identity. The real engine of the movie is clever dialogue and clever characters. At a certain point, a stronger heart would have helped.

Inside Man

posted 3/30/2006

I went to this film expecting a bank heist with overtones of race, sex, and class. It's more like a chess match with overtones of race, sex, and class. The plot question is straightforward, who will win the match of wits between a hostage negotiator and the leader of a crew of bank robbers holding a number of hostages, but obviously with an intent other than robbing the bank. This part of the story lacks urgency until the leads, Denzel Washington and Clive Owen, finally begin to confront each other directly.

What develops slowly as a story question is the issue of moral accounts being squared; that good actions in one time of life do not negate bad actions in another time and place. How this connects to the hostage negotiator is subtle; how it connects to the bank robber obscure. So the story isn't as compelling as it might have been.

The cast does bring the story to life.

16 Blocks

posted 3/22/2006

This film has a straightforward set up, an alcoholic, burned-out detective has two hours to take a talkative criminal 16 blocks to testify to a grand jury. But when hit men show up, the detective defends the witness, then finds himself being hunted by rogue cops.

The plot question is simple, will the detective be able to save himself and the witness. The story question is whether the asleep detective will wake up again and live his life.

The film touches every base in the action genre but somehow never comes fully to life.

Night Watch (Nochnoi Dozor)

posted 3/12/2006

This Russian horror film has a straightforward set up about a battle between good and evil that ends in a truce, and a prophesy about someone who will tilt the balance between the two factions. The film both acknowledges Western horror films (a character watches an episode of Buffy on TV), while managing to avoid making the story revolve around a body count. Here, a vampire employed to help enforce some of the rules of the truce finds himself at the center of a plot to lure a young boy to join the dark side. There's some nice camera work and moments where what the characters are feeling about their lives register strongly.

This is the first part of a trilogy. I look forward to seeing the second film.

Tristan Shandy

posted 3/12/2006

This movie is based on a book considered unfilmable, because the book is about life being a muddle, and the course of the novel is mostly overtaken by meandering tangents. The film is about trying to shoot a film based on the book, and the film becomes a humorous muddle overtaken by meandering tangents. The movie is an object lesson in one way to turn a book into a movie, take the central thrust of the novel and recreate it using the characters in a film setting. Very enjoyable to watch.

Underworld Evolution

posted 1/21/2006

The first movie in this series took about 90 minutes to introduce its story, about loyalty. Which meant the actors mostly had nothing to do except pose and look like they were actually in The Matrix. But, it did seem that the first film would at least set up a story for the second film. Except there's even less of a story in this film. There's a faint jab toward one character trying to resist feeding on ordinary humans; there's another faint jab toward the concept of loyalty. Mostly there's blood and carnage, blood and carnage; and then the movie ends with a voice over that suggests the purpose of the second film was, like the first, an extended trailer/back story to set up a real story in the third film.

Even more unfortunate, the main characters in this film get overshadowed by the characters who are acting to shape the course and outcome of the story.

The film is yet again another example that special effects won't save a film with a weak story structure. It's hard to feel involved with the characters or what's happening; it's even hard to follow what's happening at times.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

posted 1/18/2006

This is a witty, engaging take-off on film noirs, while actually working as a film noir. A criminal in New York finds himself sent to Los Angeles to star in a film, but first he must take lessons in being a private investigator. When he gets involved in a murder mystery, his personal life and his New York baggage combine with his attempts to be a private investigator in his new life in Los Angeles to create a complex, convoluted mystery.

The film should be a real pleasure for people who enjoy the unconventional. Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer play off each other with cheeky charm and wit.

Christmas in the Clouds

posted 1/1/2006

This is a sweet-natured comedy about a resort in Colorado owned and managed by American Indians. The complications include mistaken identity and a missing, colorful mouse. Most of the cast are Indians, and it's interesting to watch Native-Americans play characters with issues to resolve and deal with.

King Kong

posted 12/28/2006

There is much greatness in the 2nd and 3rd hours of this film, which is a remake of the original film. At the heart of the story is the relationship between Kong and a young actress, played by Naomi Watts. The camera-work and effects are amazing. What undermines the great work is that the producer in the film is played as a buffoon. Buffoons carry no dramatic weight. So the film ends up with three tones, an unrealistic tone for the buffoon, a realistic tone for the main characters, and a hyper-realistic tone for the crew on the boat and the natives on Skull Island.

Buffoons in stories lack dramatic weight because they generally live in a self-contained universe unaffected by what's happening around them. The character Carl Denhem keeps offering to have all the movie's profits go to the most recently killed member of the film crew, but it's a joke that isn't funny. There is a moment toward the end of the film that suggests Carl has broken through his persona to some moment of human feeling, but he immediately turns his back on that.

The film is strongest when it focuses on the growing relationship between Ann and Kong.

The Chronicles of Narnia

posted 12/14/2005

This film and story is often compared to The Lord of the Rings, but in terms of being a film story I thought the better comparison is to the first Harry Potter film. The Potter film was like a coffee table edition of the book; scenes introduced characters and environments. It was only two hours into the film that real narrative tension happened, when Harry had to choose between doing what was right or siding with evil to be able to see his parents in a magic mirror.

I've never read Narnia, but watching the movie I felt like I was being introduced to all the significant characters and situations, except there was no narrative tension for most of the film. The children did act out and resolve their personal issues, but I never felt connected to either side in the war, and, other than being told the wicked witch did wicked things like abolish Christmas and punish her enemies, I never saw the same kind of battle between good and evil that the film of The Lord of the Rings developed.

People who have read Narnia were probably better able to fill in the blanks. I did enjoy the movie and its spectacle, just never found it compelling.

I did wonder who all the cute talking animals ate for dinner.

Good Night, and Good Luck

posted 12/14/2005

This is a thoughtful and intelligent film about Edward R. Murrow taking on Senator McCarthy during the time when fear of communism created an opportunity for demagogues. The decision to confront McCarthy at the height of his power sets up a plot question about what the outcome will be. The story ends on a subtle note, with Murrow's show undone because such a serious program cannot justify its ratings at a time when quiz and variety shows were much cheaper to produce and reached a larger audience.

Bee Season

posted 11/19/2005

This is a quiet, thoughtful film about a young girl and her family. When she begins to win spelling bees, her father, a college professor who teaches the Kabala, becomes aware that words open her to mystic experiences. He becomes enthralled with teaching her. This shift in family dynamics (the father previously ignored the daughter in favor of a talented, older son) unravels the family. An event that shifts family dynamics is one way to start a story, because the characters have to re-define themselves. That the characters in this film redefine themselves to extremes, in terms of storytelling, will either be considered thought-provoking or illogical.

The film will work better for people with an understanding of spiritual experiences (how the son's choices connect to what his younger sister is doing).

This film does not have a pacing typical of Hollywood films, or even some art films. By starting the story with what appears to be a 'perfect' family, the plot takes a while to begin driving the action.

Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire

posted 11/17/2005

The movie has several plot tracks, the return of Voldemort, Harry's first crush on a girl, an intra-school competition. I wasn't sure what the story itself was about, so I didn't feel a strong sense of narrative tension around the course and outcome of a story question.

Zathura

posted 11/16/2005

A sweet-natured film about two boys, five and ten, who play a board game that becomes a real-life adventure in space that must be played to the end for the boys to return home. Along the way they repair their troubled relationship. The film takes care of business.

Stay

posted 10/30/2005

Stay opens with a character who appears to have survived a terrible accident and car fire. He then shows up in the office of a psychiatrist saying he's going to commit suicide in three days. Like The Jacket, the story is about a dying man needing to give his life meaning.

There are many, many stylish touches in the film, particularly with transitions that suggest the reality of the story is shifting and being re-imagined. The film is a pleasure to watch, but would probably be too obscure for people looking for a more traditional story and storytelling.

A History of Violence

posted 10/6/2005

This is a powerful film about the nature of violence, and the question of whether someone can create a new life that leaves behind a violent past.

The story begins with two bad men casually murdering some people, then cuts to a middle-aged man, Tom Stall, who owns a diner in a small town where everyone knows each other. When the bad men show up to rob the diner, Tom kills them both. That gets Tom on the news, and a few days later a very threatening Ed Harris shows up insisting that Tom is really Joey, a violent man from Philadelphia. Tom denies he's Joey, but when violence is required to save his family, Tom becomes a lethal Joey.

The acting is first rate, with Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, and William Hurt.

On a side note, years ago I spent time in a chat area with Josh Olson, aka BadCog, the screenwriter for History. In an interview, Cog mentioned his dislike of 'conscious theme.' How anyone could write a script titled A History of Violence and not be aware of what the story is about is beyond me. While I dislike the word theme (it's used as a label more often than not), what a story is about should infuse the action and the characters. A scene in History that was about sex and violence felt more like a mis-step than didn't really have anything to say. In that sense, the scene wasn't connected to anything deeper in the story.

As I recall, Josh used to watch 2-3 movies a day. That was his education in screenwriting, and it shows in the suggestive, subtle dialogue and clever action. He's earned his success.

Recommended.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose

posted 9/26/2005

The opening two minutes of the film are a man knocking on the door of an isolated farm house and waiting for someone to respond. He notices a nest of bald-faced hornets that shouldn't be active in the winter, but nothing about the opening speaks that directly to the purpose of the story, and that's the problem with the story structure in the first half of the film. Many dark places, no clear story purpose.

The plot question is set out early and clearly: is a Priest responsible for the death of a girl he considered possessed, that he tried to help with an exorcism?

The story question that arises half way through the film is embodied by the priest's defense attorney, who discovers a sense of faith during the course of the priest's trial.

The first half of the film is often objective, giving an overview of the characters and Emily Rose and what happened to her that led to the priest considering her to be possessed by demons. Every character except the DA seems to get their five minutes of screen time. But dark hallways and shadows and hissing cats aren't a substitute for a compelling main character, or a compelling story question for a cast of characters to act out. Or particularly scary.

The film does raise some questions about belief, science, religion, and law, but during the course of the film Emily Rose appears to suffer a mental illness, then just as convincingly demonstrates she's possessed.

The trailer for the film suggests a supernatural thriller, but the film is mainly a courtroom drama with flashbacks.

Flightplan

posted 9/23/2005

This film has a powerful set up, a mother on a plane can't find her daughter, and no one believes that she brought her daughter aboard the flight. The attempt to make the plot realistic in the second half of the movie stumbles when the pacing allows the audience to pull back and think about the contrivances of the plot. In a movie like The Usual Suspects, which is also contrived, there's a stronger narrative momentum that doesn't allow as much time to stop and consider the improbability of the action.

Hustle and Flow

posted 9/5/2005

A powerful film about a pimp who has a dream about becoming a rapper. The actor, Terrence Dashon Howard, commands the screen. In terms of storytelling, this is a character who's living close to the gutter who still has a dream that comes to animate his life, and then the lives of his dispirited hookers.

There's a formula to the storytelling, but the movie demonstrates the good things that can happen when the formula is done well, with actors who are willing to walk on the dark side of life. In the language of one of the main characters, this is story that both 'talks the talk and walks the walk.'

The Brothers Grimm

posted 8/28/2005

This movie is a visual feast. The plot has a quick and neat set up. The Brothers Grimm are con artists swindling German villagers by exorcising phony witches, trolls, and other gremlins. When they are captured by a French General, they are ordered to uncover who or what is terrorizing a German village. It turns out to be a real witch.

The plot question here is straightforward: will they be able to defeat the witch (and outsmart the French general).

The story, however, is a stew in the Van Helsing tradition. A story is suggested in an opening scene, then referred to twice more in the film. Generally, what the story is about has almost nothing to do with what's happening on the screen.

One of the ideas in the film is to take snippets of many of the Grimm fairy tales and use them in the service of the film's plot. But, those fairy tales often had an underlying point or moral. With no underlying point that connects the fairy tales to the film, these scenes fail to develop the story dramatically. They are just clever ideas.

This is compounded by the three leads being clean, neat, Hollywood actors with million dollar smiles in a film populated by dirty, rough-hewn peasants; demented, often dirty officials; or foppish military officers, all against an amazing background of muddy villages or a dark and musty forest.

Since the actors only have a plot question to resolve for much of the film, they aren't able to generate much narrative tension over the outcome of the plot or story or their purpose in the story. This isn't just an issue of acting (although stronger actors could have given the impression of a better story). What's vital to the three leads just doesn't make a strong impression, or connect to all the plot threads. Because Terry Gillian is such a great visual artist and the film is a marvel to watch, the film is always interesting Just not compelling. In the end, that which should have defined the relationship of the brothers has all the power of a minor childhood spat.

The film is a great example of, once again, the difference between resolution (plot) and fulfillment (story), and what happens when a story's promise is marginalized.

The Island

posted 8/27/2005

Strong idea at the heart of this action film, that clones are unknowingly being 'raised' in what seems a perfect society, until they 'win' a lottery and are sent off to be cut up for body parts. When one of the clones discovers the purpose of his existence, he fights to survive.

There are some great chase/destruction scenes ala the second Matrix film. Much money appears on the screen.

Part of the structure of the storytelling is to show the slow journey of the main characters to gaining human feeling and identity. This works as a story device, but it also undercuts the fulfillment of the story (the middle section is mainly chase scenes). In the end the film doesn't get to a deeper level like Gattaca, because the audience is asked mostly to just observe the characters and their world in the first third of the film, and to understand the ideas underpinning the world of the clones, but the storytelling is solid and takes care of business.

Four Brothers

posted 8/26/2005

Four men who were raised by a saintly lady in inner-city Detroit set out to find her killers. The plot question is built in, will they succeed? That the men are black and white sets up the issue of family being more than blood-related. But, in spite of the solid story and some good acting, the film never quite aspires to the heights it aims for. Less dialogue would have helped. The characters keep explaining the obvious to the audience.

Mr & Mrs. Smith

posted 8/11/2005

This film has a five act structure. The first act is the weakest, because it introduces its two beautiful stars as husband and wife who are not attracted to each other, but without offering any reason why they married. With the revelation that they are hired killers working for different companies, the plot kicks into a higher gear as the characters form a deeper bond admists their attempts to first kill each other, than kill minons sent by their companies to kill them.

The action in the middle acts is more fun and engaging than the big climax at the end of the film (staged to be like the ending of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but without the emotional payoff).

If the characters (hard to separate from the actors) had been given a basis for their marriage, the story would have been stronger and the ending more fulfilling.

The Fantastic Four

posted 8/11/2005

The promise of an action film is action. The Fantastic Four breaks that promise. It should have been called An Introduction to the Fantastic Four. The Incredible Hulk breaks through to connect with the audience. The other actors have roles to play, not characters.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

posted 8/8/2005

Great visuals and a story that fails to develop fully. There are several issues at play in the story about good overcoming bad, about family, and about mechanization in the modern world. But the story never develops a consistent story question in the way that Edward Sissorhands built to a powerful, fulfilling ending around its main character. he plot questions are more immediate, who will find the golden tickets, who will be the survivor of the tour.

Much inventive charm and wit.

Dark Water

posted 7/27/2005

The trailer of this film suggested a supernatural thriller. The movie is a psychological thriller. So I kept waiting for the fulfillment of a promise that never came, while watching the fulfillment of a promise I hadn't expected.

Well done, well acted, well shot. In the end there's not much payoff for all the set up.

The Snow Walker

posted 7/3/2005

This story is set in 1953, when a cocky bush pilot accepts a payoff to fly a sick Inuit girl to a hospital. The plane crashes, and the pilot, played by Barry Pepper, tries to walk out while leaving the sick girl (played by Annabella Piugattuk) at the plane. When he's overwhelmed by unbearable, thick clouds of mosquitos, he loses consciousness. When he comes to, the girl has tracked him down and nurses him back to life, even though she only speaks a few words of English.

This is a simple story, with a plain plot question: who will survive? That one person survives is suggested in an opening scene of a figure walking in the snow. The story is about the pilot learning something about his humanity, and coming to appreciate the girl's way of life.

Much beautiful scenery and a heartfelt story.

War of the Worlds

posted 6/30/2005

A father bonding with his estranged children is at the heart of the story, set against a backdrop of great special effects and what happens to people when a desire to survive becomes paramount. I had mixed feelings about the film. An early, emotional scene between the father and his teenage son falls flat, and the set up for the plot doesn't make sense. The most beautifully-realized scene is a young girl by a river seeing a body float by, then the body joined by hundreds more. This is a film where you can see the money on the screen.

Recommended to people who love grand special effects.

George Romero's Land of the Dead

posted 6/24/2005

Romero has a thoughtful way of making zombie films that speak to current politics. In this film, zombies are pretty much everywhere except an exclusive enclave managed by a wealthy and ruthless entrepreneur. The poor are kept around to maintain and secure the enclave, and played off against the threat of the dead, in the same manner poor white laborers and black slaves and laborers were played off against each other by the wealthy for hundreds of years.

When a mercenary who decides he wants to live in the big house is double-crossed, he takes an armored vehicle used to make runs into the countryside for food and medical supplies. This happens at a bad time, for one of the zombies is developing a low level of intelligence (like how to use a gun and construction tools), and is leading the others in an attack on the wealthy enclave.

In the end, the hero of the film survives to try and find a place he can call home, letting the zombies who've eaten the rich leave in peace to find their own place in the world.

Very graphic gore. A lower budget might have produced a more thoughtful, interesting film.

Batman Begins

posted 6/16/2005

This movie takes a serious look at how Bruce Wayne became Batman. Issues like fear and vengeance, good and evil are discussed in a thoughtful way (for a Hollywood movie).

A weakness in the film is a lack of chemistry between Bale and Katie Holmes. This isn't an issue of story structure, but it affects the overall impact. Another issue is that the larger world of Gotham that Bruce Wayne as Batman seeks to defend is under-realized. It's not so much a world as the appearance of a world generated by special effects.

Much fine acting with Michael Caine and Morgan Freeman leavening the movie with humor and gravitas. The Batmobile in this film is more like an armored, souped-up Humvee than the sleek black rocket of other films. Some humor in the film comes from the new Batman figuring out what tools of the trade he needs and how to use them.

Oldboy

posted 6/17/2005

This Korean film demonstrates the power of a compelling plot question. A man is imprisoned in a room for fifteen years for a reason he doesn't know. When he's released, he seeks answers and vengeance. But he must put off his vengeance if he is to get answers.

The answers ultimately shows his complicity in an act that led to his imprisonment.

Since the main character knows nothing, the audience learns about his situation as he does.

This is a Memento-like film where what seems apparent isn't true, and what's true has different levels of meaning.

This film has scenes of harrowing physical and emotional violence that isn't bloodless and painless like most Hollywood films. Anyone planning to see the film should be prepared.

Revenge of the Sith

posted 5/24/2005

Great special effects, solid storytelling, flat acting. The plot question is about the outcome of the conflict between the Jedi Council and the Chancellor Palpatine, who is secretly a Sith master. The story is about Anakin's transformation from a Jedi Knight to Darth Vader. With the three recent films, the Star Wars saga is clearly about Anakin's descent into the dark side and his eventual redemption.

The actor who plays Chancellor Palatine comes across as a fully-realized character with an agenda. Other actors at times don't appear to be in the environments of the film story.

Kung Fu Hustle

posted 5/5/2005

This is a fun, rollicking action film told with great humor. Much of the humor comes from reversals. The most innocent-looking characters are the most lethal.

A pleasure to watch.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

posted 4/30/2005

I love the book and enjoyed the movie. The story (mostly this is about recreating the tone of the book) is about everyman Earthling Arthur Dent learning to survive in a much larger, varied universe than he could ever imagine. Plot questions are created around whether Arthur and Trillium will get together and who ordered the demolition of Earth for a hyperspace by pass.

Sin City

posted 4/28/2005

This is a movie based on a graphic novel, and the look of the film is an attempt to recreate the novel. Wonderful visuals. The storytelling is mostly about violent men redeeming themselves with a violent, grand gesture that mostly gets them killed.

The Ring 2

posted 3/18/2005

The first American Ring movie scared me. I also noted that many of its production techniques started showing up in subsequent horror films. When I read the mixed reviews for The Ring 2, as always I was curious to discover why. The main problem in The Ring 2 is the most common problem in movies that fail to reward the attention of an audience, a failure to give a main character a clear goal, and a failure to develop narrative tension around that goal.

In the first Ring movie, a mother views a video tape and realizes the threat that accompanies the tape, that she'll die in a week if she watches it, is true. When her son accidentally views the tape, she frantically goes on a journey to discover the source of the tape and somehow save her son's life. As she seeks out clues, the viewers of the film find out more about the images on the video.

The elements of the film that work well are a main character who is compelled to act with greater and greater urgency around a clearly presented goal. In this case, the time frame of the story, that she has one week to save her son, adds to the drama. The creepy, jittery images on the video add to the sense of weirdness the movie generates. At the heart of the story is an issue of parents listening to children.

In the sequel, the first third of the film re-introduces that the ghost of the girl from the first film/video tape is back and after the mother's son. But, why, and what the mother should do about it, is diffuse. Things happen. Worse, the production values in the first third of the film are on a par with a weekly network television series.

About a third of the way into the film, the mother finally has a clear goal, to find out more about the ghost, and to be reunited with her son (taken from her because he appears to be abused). This raises the issue of her need to a good mother, which, ultimately, is what the story is about.

Two-thirds of the way into the film, the mother learns she must kill her son to save him. Now we have a character in a state of narrative tension. She must do something she can't do, but to fail to act is to leave her son possessed by an evil spirit. Now the movie is finally a good story.

But it's too little, too late.

The movie also fails to overcome some illogical scenes. The son wakes up with a nightmare in the middle of the night and the mother takes him to the small town newspaper where she's an editor...and everyone who works for the paper is sitting at their desks. No reason why is offered. In another scene, the mother and son are attacked on a highway for a reason that is never made clear. The scene or dialogue that would have provided an explanation was apparently left out of the movie.

Too bad.

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

posted 3/14/2005

I'm a fan of Wes Anderson's work, but I waited to see this because of the mixed reviews. I found the problem to be a lack of dramatic tension in the first quarter of the film. Because there's not much at stake, many scenes just amble along, not particularly funny or dramatic. When the story gets into gear around a quest and Bill Murray's character dealing with issues of fatherhood, the story hits firmer ground, and the humor begins to work.

The issue for Murray's character that comes fully on-stage later in the film is that of a man in late middle-age finding that what has defined his life is winding down and there's nothing on the horizon. When he meets Owen Wilson, who claims to be his son, he starts to think about family. He's also in a contest with Wilson for the affections of Cate Blanchett, which also kicks the drama up a notch. In the end, Murray's character discovers that his crew mates have always been his family.

Without a firmer introduction of that at the beginning of the story, most of the early scenes are flaccid.

Hitch

posted 3/12/2005

This is an amiable romantic comedy mostly carried through by the actors. The storytelling has a flaw that undercuts the overall impact of the story. Will Smith is Hitch, the date doctor, a man who teaches ordinary men the skills (or manipulations) to become involved with beautiful, successful women. But the fulfillment of the story suggests that what Hitch teaches is irrelevant. Except that the movie has demonstrated that it isn't. The overall level of storytelling reflects that willingness to settle for an easy payoff.

In general, most scripts that I read don't rise above their flaws. The movie is an example that star power isn't the solution.

The Pacifier

posted 3/6/2005

A duck bites Vin Diesel's ear, which I found very funny.

Other than that, the movie is a demonstration of the pitfalls of trying to manage too many threads. Diesel is a navy Seal babysitting several undisciplined kids, so where the story is going is a foregone conclusion. But taking the time to set up everyone's personal and group issues and playing them out in different arenas means the film is in a long, slow, set-up mode that has a quick payoff. There's very little tension, because the people the children need protection from are mostly kept off-stage, and the job Diesel is given -- finding something in the children's house -- is generally ignored. In some scenes, all the children are actively protected from danger, in others, they aren't. So there's no internal logic to what happens.

More of the duck would have helped.

The Jacket

posted 3/4/2005

This is a powerful film about the issue of identity and the need that one's life story have a desirable meaning. As a soldier lies dying in the first Gulf War, he envisions what his future could be. Or, he's dying later in the story and still envisions what his future could have been to give his death purpose and meaning. Others could have a different interpretation of this film and be just as right. The story and plot, by design, are meant to be cryptic. Probably too cryptic for some, but I enjoyed this.

I doubt this film will develop the kind of audience that Donnie Darko found to break down and follow all the clues to the plot. In the end, The Jacket is a stylish thriller, while Donnie Darko said something about being young and alienated. A friend who took a teenage soon to see Donnie Darko said after the movie they had the deepest conversation they'd had in years. There's nothing in the Jacket that goes deeper than some good performances and a cryptic plot.

Constantine

posted 2/17/2005

Constantine has good to great special effects, but since that's standard in big-budget films, it isn't enough to carry the film. The film does have a great turn by Tilda Swinton, and an interesting devil. What the film can't overcome is no chemistry between the leads, and minor characters who come and go and live and die without much impact on the plot or story. A main character reveals what's important to her half way through the film, and that's the first moment of human feeling. Without someone or something to care about, it's hard to feel involved in what happens.

Million Dollar Baby

posted 2/2/2005

This is a powerful film. Frankie is a fight manager who over-protects his fighters. Scrap works at Frankie's run down gym in LA. When Maggie shows up wanting Frankie to be her trainer and manager, he wants nothing to do with her, but her determination to become a boxer at 31 sways him to take her on as her manager.

At the heart of this story is the idea that no matter what we do, how we train, how much we pray, how we try to do right, we can't always protect ourselves, not in a fight in a boxing ring or from life.

Recommended.

Elektra

posted 1/25/2005

Another movie with many elements and a late introduction of a story issue for the main character. Elektra's life focuses on death and mayhem when her mother is killed by dark forces. So she becomes an assassin who works for hire. Not quite a logical connect. If she'd taken on a quest to kill the killers of her mother (and their minions), and lost her humanity along the way, the character would have a stronger, purer logic. Instead, Elektra is given characters tics -- she's OCD in parts of the movie, not in others, and it doesn't seem to have anything to do with what happens. Toward the end of the movie, her real character motivation comes out -- to regain her humanity (and thus her purity of heart) that she lost with the murder of her mother.

The film starts by nailing a plot question about a battle between good and evil, and the need for each side to recruit a character who will provide a tipping point in that battle, but the evil characters don't seem to be part of any larger world.

More proof that special effects won't save a weak story.

Closer

posted 1/23/2005

This film has some powerful acting that revolves around four characters who enjoy seduction and drama over love and intimacy. The dialogue of the film (which is based on a play) is raw and powerful. The scenes of the movie all revolve around those moments when relationships begin, shift, or die, so the characters project a naked intensity unusual in most Hollywood films. The story is another example that fulfilling a story's promise isn't about being uplifting; this is a story about characters unable to love, and the story strips away the facade behind their use of the idea of being in love.

Some of the most passionate moments in the film take place between the two male leads, who meet in an internet sex lounge and can't get each other out of their minds. For them, bedding the women involved is about keeping score and getting even with each other.

The actors are Juliet Roberts, Clive Owen, Jude Law, and Natalie Portman.

Kinsey

posted 1/15/2005

A beautiful film that captures the ignorance about sex that Kinsey's two books overturned, or attempted to overturn. The film goes through the major stages of Kinsey's life and work. In a subtle way, the story is about how Kinsey the scientist grew up to be like his father. While the father found refuge in an absolute belief in religious morality that had no understanding of human beings, Kinsey studies human sexuality with the same zeal he studied gall wasps, and with about the same understanding of human beings. A scene at the end of the movie suggests Kinsey had an epiphany about human love, but that moment is also undercut.

Powerful storytelling with a first rate cast.

White Noise

posted 1/12/2005

The trailer suggests a straight-ahead horror film. The opening 35 minutes of the film suggest a story about grieving for a lost one when we have so many digital memories. There is tension generated when a spouse is late to return home, but it's not until the first scare happens that the movie settles into being a routine supernatural thriller. The mixed messages of the film undercut its overall impact. Nothing much comes out of the long opening, except to make the pacing seem slow for the kind of film promised.

Michael Keaton brings the main character to life, and he's great at bringing edgy tension to the screen.

Darkness

posted 12/31/2004

Darkness has a plot about a family moving in to a house where a failed sacrifice of children happened forty years previously. A child who escaped the sacrifice is now the father of the family moving into the house. The basic plot questions, who'll survive? What's the meaning and purpose of the sacrifice? Is the father going crazy, and will he harm his family? The answers are mostly withheld until the end of the film, so there are many, many scenes with the lights in the house going off and strange shadows darting about just barely seen by the human characters. Toward the end of the film, there are scenes with characters who seem to be taken directly from The Ring. One way to spot an influential film is to spot how many techniques/scenes/characters end up in other films. The producers of The Ring should charge a licensing fee.

But, returning to the movie at hand, I say a good film is both a story about an issue of human need and a plot. Only I couldn't say what the story (as I define it) of Darkness is about. There are all kinds of threads that connect in some way, but no central issue, hence, no narrative tension for a main character to resolve, and no way for me as an audience to feel caught up in a main character's issue. For about half the movie, I wasn't even sure who the main character was.

There's a clever twist at the end, but what it means and how it ties in to everything else that's happened, I'm not sure. I could see this being a script that read well, or perhaps the movie is based on a novel that conveyed more information about what the story and characters were about.

The film does look good. The actors give it a good go.

Blade: Trinity

posted 12/22/2004

Blade is a good example to use to set out the distinction I make between story and plot. Blade has a plot about the on-going conflict between vampires and humans, with a plot question that revolves around whether the original vampire will be able to defeat Blade. But, there's no story set out as a story question, and advanced along a story line to its fulfillment. Story threads pop up between fight scenes, about Blade being an outcast, about revenge, about a mother's love for her daughter. But it's impossible to say, 'This is a story about X,' in the sense that Van Helsing, as bad as it was, made furtive stabs at being about Van Helsing's quest to discover his identity ("Your name is Bob," the helpful vampire tells Van Helsing).

What happens in this kind of film is that every actor has to figure out a role to play since there's no unifying story idea. Parker Posey goes over the top as a female vampire; an angry wise guy who used to be her sexual slave makes movie wise-cracks while being beaten; Whistler's daughter kicks vampire ash; a computer nerd plays basketball; a blind mother gives lessons to her young daughter, etc.

Like Van Helsing and Chronicle of Riddick, there's a surfeit of special effects that never replace the want of a good story.

Ocean's 12

posted 12/12/2004

This is a sequel to Ocean's 11, a film that brought together a number of stars in an enjoyable heist film. Twelve has a slow start from a need to reintroduce all its characters, but once the plot kicks in, and the plot complications, the film is a pleasure to watch. Catherine Zeta-Jones is again luminous in a film role, and she gives the story its greatest dramatic weight as a woman who must decide what kind of life she will live. Her scenes with Brad Pitt are a pleasure. The chemistry here between George Clooney and Julia Roberts has a warmth and on-screen affection the first film lacked. An assured, confident film meant to entertain.

Sideways

posted 11/12/2004

This movie has a quiet opening. A wine expert is taking an old friend on a road trip through wine country just before his friend's marriage. The friend is an actor who was once a soap star, who now does voice work. The wine expert is still depressed about a failed marriage. What starts out as a simple trip gets knocked sideways by chance meetings with two women, and the faded star's desire to get laid before he gets married. The story is a wry, then humorous, then heartfelt look at adult relationships, and about men who haven't grown up. Discussion and commentaries on wine also speak to relationships.

The Grudge

posted 11/10/2004

The Grudge is a horror film from the Japanese author who created the novel that became the American film The Ring (based on the Japanese film of the novel). The Ring is a powerful story about parents and children; the Grudge is a plot machine that delivers scares at an ever increasing rate, but while we get some explanation of the plot, there's no real story on hand in The Grudge, and no real narrative tension (over a character in the story trying to shape some outcome). The only narrative tension in The Grudge comes when a character tries to save her boyfriend who's gone to a haunted house to save her, and that's at the end of the film.

Everything that came before that was scares on the level of opening a door at night and having a black, hissing cat jump up into your face unexpectedly. Yes, the scares are scary, but it never amounts to anything; there's no narrative tension transferred from a character to the audience. There no real sense of what this story is about, other than characters who go into the house and come into contact with the grudge dying.

I assumed there was something about the elements of the Japanese horror novel that spoke to a Japanese audience. It doesn't translate into this film.

I Love (heart symbol) Huckabees

posted 10/23/2004

Interesting, challenging film. On a simple level, it's about a young man's search for the meaning of his life. On another level, the movie is a comedy about the odd metaphysical paths some people become caught up in to help make that journey, and the odd notions and teachers that guide people on those journeys. The story also pokes fun at how and why people shift personas, and how actors play those personas (sometimes with a wink and a nod to the audience).

Which means the film will seem disjointed to some.

The film has a Fellini-est quality, with a suggestion that life is a circus and we might as well enjoy our roles, or choose new roles. Mark Walberg, who plays a fireman, tugs the movie into Felline-est quality by not acting like he's in a comedy.

The movie does get across the joyful glee of feeling caught up in an empowering transformation.

The Forgotten

posted 9/23/2004

This movie opens with a powerful plot question: is a mother still grieving the loss of her son imagining she ever had a son? To preserve a revelation, the person/entity responsible for what's happening stays mostly off stage. The story's climax answers the initial plot question, but it doesn't really fulfill some deeper story purpose introduced at the beginning of the film (in the way that the Sixth Sense was about second chances). The film ends up being a kind of shaggy dog story.

Sky Captain

posted 9/20/2004

A loving tribute/recreation of the old serials from the 40's. The way the film is produced (just about all the background images are computer generated), raises a question about how many more films will soon be mostly created on computers.

Gozu

posted 9/13/2004

Japanese director Takashi Miike makes some of the oddest films I've ever seen. Audition, Visitor Q, Dead or Alive, Ichi the Killer, Happiness of the Katakuris (think the Sound of Music crossed with Dawn of the Dead). This latest Miike film (that I've seen; he makes five features films a year), has all his trademark elements: amazing ending, main character reacting to the incomprehensible, lactating woman, man with a cow's head, a horrifically funny scene of a small dog's demise to open the film, something being done with a spoon I never imagined. But, in the end the film dragged for me. The story, besides the obvious about a relationship between two men, doesn't seem to have any other point. The plot revolves around a Yakuza gang-member disposing of the body of another gangster who's gone crazy.

Resident Evil

posted 9/12/2004

More video game than movie, and not much fun. The movie is another film that proves a lack of characterization, story, plot, and common sense cannot be overcome by special effects. Just about every interesting visual image is in the trailer. There is one moment of human contact/feeling near the end of the film. The movie is organized around the idea of individuals battling an inhuman corporation.

Hero

posted 9/6/2004

Great storytelling and amazing visual images. The story is about what is worth fighting and dying for. The plot revolves around whether a character played by Jet Li will assassinate a king who wants to unify China. Each stage of the plot and the deeper meaning of the story is revealed through a series of stories that give different meanings to how Jet Li came to be before the king.

The cinematography is breathtaking.

Donnie Darko - The Director's Cut

posted 9/3/2004

I love the original version of this film. The director's cut adds material to explain time travel that is jarring and not integrated into the story. This version of the film ends up being an example of how sometimes there are good reasons why producers step in to do a final edit of a film.

Suspect Zero

posted 8/27/2004

Zero is a remake of Se7en without Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Brad Pitt, and a story, until the last twenty minutes. The set up is that someone is hunting and killing serial killers. That's a plot, and an idea, but it's not a story. For most of the film an FBI agent stays in a state of continual heightened tension, but there's no break from the tension, no real sense of what it means, or how it connects to a deeper story purpose.

The film demonstrates the price for withholding information that would allow the audience to feel involved with the story's main character.

The last twenty minutes play to a different dramatic rhythm that is more focused and heightened than all the visually-inspired tension of the previous 90 minutes. Those twenty minute revolve around the story of what happens whe