With Gusto

Movie Reviews

Bullitt - *** - Starring Steve McQueen, this movie is a slow mover, but is renowned for the car chase scene between a Mustang (driven by McQueen) and a Dodge Charger (driven by bad men with guns). It's one of those oblique 70's movies where they try to make things as vague as possible hoping that the viewer will piece together the "puzzle" at the end.

Lost in Translation - ****.5 - 2004. I thought it was brilliant at first, but on the third viewing I saw the movie as a bunch of mumbo-jumbo montage scenes interspersed with sentimental moments between strangers. Though it isn't like that at all. Terrifically acted, very free mise en scene (extras are "real" people on the street), which ads to the themes of alienation and being a real person in a techno world. In older movies in the similar vein, such as "Beathless" the people existing outside of the film, the extras, are everyday people on the street, not actors. In "Breathless" the extras are constantly looking into the camera, surprised to see one. In "Lost in Translation" however, people just don't care. It only took fifty years, and people don't react to having themselves captured. Directed and written by Sofia Coppola. Her second movie, and a force. I'm looking forward to her futher endeavors.

Breathless - ***** - 1959?. Basically created the French New Wave cinema. It has a documentary feel, while being a fiction. Apparantly the director (Jean Luc Goddard) would call out the dialogue to the actors minutes before shooting. Best line in the movie, "When we were together, I talked about me, and you talked about you, where as we should've talked about each other." A flim critic said that the camera moves around as if it were an impatient friend, waiting for the characters to finish their business so they can move on. The film is about a French gangster who shoots a cop in the country side, then runs away to chase girls, killing being the furthest thing from his mind.

Citizen Kane - there's a billion reviews already. 1941. Directed and starring Orsen Wells.

Man With a Movie Camera - ***** - Watch this one with the music. Otherwise you may be in for a boring ride. Directed by Dziga Vertov. An adventure in editing. Truly amazing. 1928. I have to make a documentary in the similar style as this. I hope I can do it. I already have ideas in mind, shots planned out, and I will be able to write all the music myself.

Farenheit 9/11 - **** - 2004. An indictment against Bush. It really riled me up when I watched it. Great footage of Bush being an idiot. One scene in particular: A dinner style event, W. Bush, delivering a speech says, "Looks like we got the haves, and the have-mores." Everybody claps. "I've always called you my base." Everybody claps. If you don't know much about Bush, then see this movie. My main complaint about Moore is that I get too riled up watching his movies, then feel slightly over-manipulated hours afterwards. It's a great documentary film, and it's important to remember that documentary filmmakers are not journalists. Journalists spend too much time hiding in objectivity and playing both sides out so evenly, that the reader either gets too bored, or him or herself feels nothing but a "I think that it's racist, but I do believe in free speech" attitude. There is less of Moore's presence in this one, his celebrity figure imprinted in the film, rather than as a character.

Posted by matty-b at August 6, 2004 12:00 PM