It's official, Gus Van Sant is one of my favorite directors.
(I lost the rest of this review in the import and don't remember enough about the movie now to fill it in. Apparently I liked it, but I'm sorry that I can't tell you more about why.)
Wall Street is a great look at the underworld of the big shots in the financial world. The acting is excellent. The characters are very real and believable. The story is great and it's masterfully directed. You definitely shouldn't miss this one.
River's Edge is the story of burnout, lower-class high school students with a twisted sense of morality and reality. I'm really not a fan of Keanu Reeves and this movie was no exception. I also thought that Crispin Glover's character was a bit too over the top. The story was interesting and I'm always fascinated by tales of poverty-striken rural towns, so I sort of liked this one for that aspect. I also liked Hopper's character, but I'm starting to realize that he seems to only play crazy people. Not really a problem, but he's a bit more typecast than I realized.
The Killing Fields is about a journalist and his interpreter's experiences covering the civil war in Cambodia and the United States' involvement. It's based on a true story, but since I wasn't alive during the time that all this took place, I think that something was lost on me. I felt like we were supposed to pity the journalists, but I felt like what they were going through paled in comparison to the rest of the Cambodian citizens. How can I feel sorry for Ngor's character, who has 5 Americans bending over backwards to try to help him while there are thousands upon thousands of ordinary Cambodians that they don't seem to give a damn about? Now maybe if I had actually read Sydney Schanberg's articles about the war and the people of Cambodia then I would feel differently. Despite the great acting, I feel that the real tragedy of this story was glossed over.
Well the Coen brothers have done it again. This movie is absolutely terrific. My only complaint about it is that on the DVD, the interlude at the beginning (where they always show a really short clip from the movie) gave waaaaay too much away. I didn't know anything about this movie, but after seeing that interlude I was just watching and trying to figure out how it fit in. So maybe you should see this movie on digital download, but either way you should see it.
I was somewhat surprised by Blue Velvet. I really expected it to be much more Lynchian having seen Mullholland Drive recently. Not to say that it wasn't good - because it was - but it just wasn't confusing enough for me :). On the whole, it's a good movie; it's very dark and mysterious. Dennis Hopper does a terrific job and the characters in general are very entertaining. Don't expect it to be what you think of when you think David Lynch, but see this movie anyway.
Strangely enough, I think that Taxi Driver was the first Scorsese movie that I actually liked. Phenomenal acting, interesting story, and a lead character that you yo-yo back and forth between liking and being scared of all come together in this classic. You can't really say enough good things about this movie. The way that the characters are presented and the way the city is portrayed is remarkable. You get the twinge of De Niro's disgust, but only enough to make you sympathize with him a little. At the same time you are exposed to the normalcy of the rest of the city which brings you back to reality. Excellent movie. Not to be missed.
Fire is a Canadian movie that is set it India. It's the story of two women in arranged marriages to brothers. The older brother takes a vow of celibacy and decides to dedicate his life to religion when he finds out that his wife can't have children. The younger brother is in love with an Asian woman but gets married to an Indian when his girlfriend decides that she doesn't want to live the traditional Indian life of being housewife and mother. The two wives, frustrated with their marriages, find love in each others' arms. They fall in love and you follow as they struggle with finding the balance between acceptance and happiness. One of the interesting things about this movie was the controversy it sparked in India. Lesbianism is not an accepted thing there and there were riots at the theaters that showed the movie. Anyway, not a great movie... at least not what it had the potential to be, but interesting nontheless.
Okay so you want to know why I didn't like Deer Hunter, huh? Where do I start? I think that the movie is generally overrated with the exception of the acting, which was exemplary. The first thing is that there was a lot of wasted time in the wedding scene without actually adding to the story or the characters.
Second, the characters themselves were never developed worth a hill of beans. Time wasted in the wedding scene could have been put into actually showing a bit more of what made Walken's character snap. All of a sudden he flips out at the game and is convinced that he should start playing all the time? That's the last thing you'd expect to happen. Why didn't he just run away?
Now on to De Niro's character. The name of the movie is Deer Hunter and there's a good scene of the friends hunting before going off to war that supposed to signify normalcy and their friendship, espcially Walken's character and De Niro's. But you never find out what the actual hunt means to De Niro. It clearly is one of the major things that defines him, both to himself and to those around him, but you never find out what it means to him. Also, what was his motivation for going back to get Walken? You never see the moment when he switches from being interested in Streep's character to feeling that he needs to bring Walken home. He just goes and it makes no sense. And why do they let him go?! And with an escort?! While the embassy is being stormed?! Was Walken really that important a person? He stayed behind in Saigon for cripes sake!
I understand that this movie was notable because it was really the first movie to capture what people felt about Vietnam and the emotions associated with people coming home. But, there's many better movies about the war that have been made since then. Platoon does a far better job of capturing what people go through in the pain of that war and Deliverance will better show you how friendships hold up under stress.
Anyway, that's the end of my rant. If you're a huge fan of Deer Hunter, I'm sorry but it just didn't do it for me... and you're wrong! :) That's why these are opinions. In my opinion, skip this movie.
Gerry is a very strang movie. It's about two friends who vacation in the desert and get lost while out on a hike. The movie follows them as they fight through several days of dehydration, exhaustion, and dellerium trying to find their way out of the desert. The movie is very, very, very slow-paced. For example, in one scene there is a 360 degree pan around Affleck's head that has no dialog in it, but lasts for over 5 minutes. This slow pace and the long shots emphasize what the characters in the movie are experiencing, but can make it difficult to bear. The acting is good though there is almost no dialog. I would say the best part of the movie is the spectacular scenery. Interesting if nothing else.