Comments: This is a good one. I’m decently familiar with Charlestown…did the Community College thing there for a semester, climbed the Bunker Hill Monument when I was twelve, etc…so I sort of knew what was up. It was nice to see MBTA stations, grimy bars, and the Town Florist. The bank robbers were characters that I felt like I know. It could have been the reasonably accurate Boston accents, but maybe it’s the dickhead, but nice guy “townie” psyche that brought me to that conclusion. For what it’s worth, the plot is great. Extremely fictional, but great. Again, my favorite aspect of the film was setting. Thumbs up for the Fenway Park scenes and even the scenes just outside of the Park itself…at the Howard Johnson, at the (no longer?) McDonalds on Boylston, etc.
Full Title: Cheech and Chong’s Nice Dreams Director: Tommy Chong Year: 1981 Comments: WARNING: YOU MUST BE AT LEAST EIGHT BEERS DEEP, EXTREMELY HIGH AS A KITE AND IN LOVE WITH EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO VIEW THIS FILM. Otherwise you will probably detest it out of sheer boredom. I can’t imagine watching this sober. Yeesh. Naturally, after the original Cheech and Chong flick Up In Smoke (1978) the series started to plummet. But, all is well if you are twizsted, at least for me. I loved how fucked up and overtly aimless this stoner essential could be. With naked ladies, crazy coke snorting, and hilarious cameos from the likes of Timothy Leary and Paul Reubens (Pee Wee!) I can safely say this was not a waste of my time, in fact it felt like I had been watching it for days.
Grade: N/A- this would be an F for obvious reasons, but given the fact that I (and hopefully everyone) do not take this at all seriously, a grade is unecessary. KLYAM Recommended? Yeah sure, if you’re really baked!
Full Title: Almost Famous Director: Cameron Crowe Year: 2000 Comments: Almost Famous is perhaps the greatest portrayl of Rock and Roll ever to hit the silver screen. What I really dig about this flick is that it takes place in 1973 as the era of Great Rock and Roll was gasping for air. We see these last precious moments of rebellion through the eyes of William Miller (Patrick Fugit) a fifteen year old journalist and a devout fan, experiencing this transition from music of the people to “industry of cool,” as real life Rock Critic, Lestor Bangs (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) puts it. With great performances from Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Jason Lee, Billy Crudup, (a young) Zooey Deschanel, amongst others, this is a Must See for Rock fans and non fans (but who cares about them?!) alike.
Grade: A/A+
Full Title: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Director: Milos Forman Year: 1975 Comments: This has been a favorite of mine for about six or seven years now and I can’t imagine anyone walking through life and not seeing this at least once. Granted, the novel is better and I can understand why those who love the book would detest this. With that being said, I prefer the adaptation so much more because the brilliant performances of Jack Nicholson and crew truly bring all of these colorful characters to life in ways that for me personally are not as effective in the written form. The classic ending is so triumphant and beautiful that I have rarely seen another film top it; easily one of the greatest final shots in the history of cinema. Funny, passionate, disturbing, and inspiring- what else can you ask for? It should also be noted that after thirty-five years this movie has not dated at all; I watched it in one of my Psychology classes and nearly all of the class appreciated and/or loved it. How a film stands the test of time is to me a major factor of quality and Cuckoo’s Nest appears to be timeless.
Grade: A+ (in my top ten)
Full Title: Do the Right Thing Director: Spike Lee Year: 1989 Comments: So, it was after 1 A.M. on a Monday night, a school night, junior year of high school, and I’m lying in my bed, watching this Spike Lee joint (bad idea for any first time viewing of a film) struggling to stay awake. Then all of a sudden, as the film is reaching its climax, I rose and walked toward my TV set and stood there for the remainder of the film (a good 15-20 minutes) just glued to the screen. This has never happened to me before. I couldn’t sleep after what I had just seen; my brain was overloaded with numerous thoughts, questions, impressions, etc. The next morning in my Algebra class, I put forth a valiant effort to focus on whatever it was we were covering in the Math world, but my mind was just fixed on DTRT, particularly the ending (one of the greatest I’d wager). If you haven’t surmised already, this is an extremly thought provoking film and unleashes the most heated of debates, even amongst its participants (disagreements have risen between Lee and some of the actors). To spare the suspense, the movie depicts the lives of those in a Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the Summer and like the heat, the racial tension between blacks, whites, hispanics, and asians is driving everyone crazy. Though, this a black film, Lee does not shy away from portraying black characters with many flaws (there are also several black characters that fight prejudice and are quite respectable) as well as both racist and non racist characters of other ethnicities. Lee’s perspective as black director is essential to this film as it distinguishes itself from other race related films such as American History X (1998) and Crash (2004), which have less of a point of view, in this respect. I could go on all day about all the various, super factors that make this a terrific film, but in short, it’s the little things that Lee incorporates that makes this joint Spike Lee’s distinctive piece- from Rosie Perez (ready to go with her boxing gloves) dancing to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power” (1989) over the opening credits to DJ Mister Senor Love Daddy (Samuel L. Jackson) listing off the roll call of the radio station’s many, essential, black artists “that make the day just a little brighter.” Suffice to say this film makes you think.
Grade: A+
Three great dramedies (though they are more than that) to check out!
Next: A Full Review of I Am Legend (2007) or a Mini Classic Review of Born On the Fourth of July (1989) and others
Full Title: The Social Network Director: David Fincher Year: 2010 Comments: The Social Network has been hailed as a film that defines a generation and to me regardless of whether you like it or not, it is. Facebook is a part of our lives and for many it is our lives. Admittedly, I check my Facebook page at the very least a few times day. Such a phenomenon deserves its own film- even if the events depicted occured less than a decade ago and the plot itself is based on a novel (The Accidental Billionaires by: Ben Mezrich) released just last year. Everything is happening so fast! Yet, this ultra fast, in out, in out :) pace is perfect for the story or message the writers, filmmakers, etc are trying to articulate to the masses: the rampant releases of everything Facebook is a good metaphor for how quickly our modern world functions. Despite the fact that this is extremely recent history, I can’t imagine a more appropos time for its release. Now, it should be known that this film embellishes what happened in real life; it’s part fact, part fiction. In other words, the story was spiced up a bit to make the film a far more fascinating experience for all of us. I suppose one could compare this to the previous film I reviewed, Oliver Stone’s The Doors (1991) in which what appears on screen is more a “vision” of the actual events. So, with a few lines, let me tell you that the story begins in 2003 with Harvard undergrad, Mark Zuckerburg (Jesse Eisenburg) feeling disgruntled after being dumped by his girlfriend, he starts to drunkenly blog about her “lessr” qualities and soon finds himself creating a new internet sensation in “Facesmash,” in which his fellow male Harvard students can compare pictures of their female counterparts and vote for which one is more attractive. Within mere hours the site receives thousands of hits and ends up crashing the system. Mark is sentenced to six months of academic probation and understandably becomes a pariah. Not too long after this incident Mark is approached by a trio of Harvard students: Identical twin brothers- Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) and their friend Divya Narendra (Max Minghella) looking for a programmer for their upcoming website, Harvard Connection. Mark accepts their offer, but eludes their subsequent calls, meanwhile he enlists his buddy, Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) in assisting him with his latest project, “The Facebook,” essentially initiating the social network phenomenon we know of today. The rest of the film consists of simultaneous court cases with the Winklevoss brothers and Eduardo filing lawsuits against him over Facebook. Literally, we are bombarded with both cases at the same time; the movie goes back and forth, back and forth, leaving us feeling as overwhelmed as Mark. As a character he is quite fascinating, throughout the movie he is always searching for the meaning of “cool” and in many ways that is exactly what Facebook is: the supreme network of cool. Oddly enough, from start to finish Mark, it seems, never actually is “cool,” always an outsider (sometimes physically as metaphorically suggested in one of the party scenes where everyone is celebrating inside his house, while he is on the outside, simply observing. In essence, that is in actuality what Mark’s life becomes. He may not be cool himself, but he is the one who has created cool. Grade: A, the best (or at least my favorite) film I’ve seen all year.
This was one of my favorite trailers from this year, so rarely do trailers entice you with something else besides the actual scenes themselves.
Full Title: Detroit Rock City Director: Adam Rifkin Year: 1999 Comments: This is straight up fun, fun, fun film about the nightmare of losing your KISS tickets the day of the concert and winding up in every possible adventure to make it to the show and see the HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD!!! Sure, this is over the top, absurd, and lacks many aspects of what typically makes a film decent, but this is just a wacky, fun filled flick to be taken lightly. I will say, I never lose my interest the entire movie; I can’t wait to see what obstacle will arise next in the boys’ journey to seeing KISS.
Grade: N/A, this is just a cool, popcorn movie, so I really don’t think slapping a grade on it is useful. It’s KLYAM Recommended that’s all you need to know.
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Full Title: High Fidelity Director: Stephen Frears Year: 2000 Comments: Our second film regarding life and music, High Fidelity, however is more substance than style and eshews basic Hollywood cliches, creating a masterful love story in the process. HF is quite humorous and should be appreciated by (OBSESSIVE) music fans, such as myself, often hitting too close to home haha. In my opinion, John Cusack’s greatest performance. The acting is great, the script is well-written, and the story nicely unfolds without the aforementioned, cliched Hollywood ending. If you’re a fan of good love stories and pop music, give this some eyetime.
Grade: A ><
Full Title: The Doors Director: Oliver Stone Year: 1991 Comments: For Doors fans, you should know up front this is a rather loose interpretation of their history, a “vision” of what actually happened, if you will. But, you probably will dig the plethora of excellent Doors music, the astonishingly scary depiction of Mr. Mojo Risin from Val Kilmer, and lastly the visual look of the film, which is simply stunning. For accuracy, look elsewhere. For a sad, but genuinely entertaining and thoughtful look at the decadence and tragedy of the Rockstar lifestyle, The Doors is your movie. Without a doubt one of Stone’s essentials.
Grade: A/A-
Full Title: Rear Window Director: Alfred Hitchcock Year: 1954 Comments This is arguably the greatest offering from the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. Hitch’s 1954 classic more than holds up and is perhaps just as suspenseful now as fifty-six years ago. Briefly, the plot concerns the dull day to day life of Jeff (James Stewart) a wheel chair bound photographer as he has nothing left to do but satisfy his carnal base needs through spying (via binoculars) on his neighbours. As the movie progresses, we sympathize with Jeff because we have, ourselves, become voyeurs just like him as the film is through his point of view. The suspense kicks in further when Jeff stumbles upon a murder from one of his neighbours. The rest of the film is Jeff trying to convince everyone else that a murder took place and the killer should be brought to justice. Only Hitchcock can take this story and make it as thrilling as it is. Fuck Disturbia (2006)! In other words, if you haven’t already, watch this film, it’s amazing; not as good as Psycho (1960), but what is?
>Grade: A
Full Title: Thank You For Smoking Director: Jason Reitman Year: 2005 Comments: This is a great piece of satire from Reitman and crew that neither endorses nor condemns Tobacco, but rather pokes fun at all the propaganda and hullabaloo that surrounds the topic. I really appreaciate this story for not selling its audience short and instead showing anti-tobacco politicians as villians (within this context) for basically exploiting the issue of smoking to enhance their own political careers. And by that same token, the character of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is one of my favorites in all of cinema, as he is a great, three dimensional figure with both negative and redeeming qualities. Overall, a very funny and sharp look at an ongoing debate in America.
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Full Title: Pee Wee’s Big Adventure Director: Tim Burton Year: 1985 Comments: Write a mini movie review of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. (In a classic Pee Wee Herman voice) MAYBE I WILL! Perhaps one of the zaniest and definitely funniest kids movies I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. Burton’s knack for odd, but enticing imagery is perfectly mixed with Paul Reuben’s eccentric performance as the bizarre man-child, Pee Wee, dedicated to only one thing in life: retrieving his beloved bike. And yes, Large Marge scared the shit outta me too as a child!
Grade: A
Full Title: American Psycho Director: Mary Harron Year: 2000 Comments: Shocking. Depraved. Gruesome. Sickening. Those are some adjectives you could use to describe this film. Or…. you could say….Hilarious. Comical. Witty. AP works on various levels and without a doubt is a film that sticks with you for its over the top, slam to your sensory approach. It’s twisted, gory, and for some downright offensive (as with Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, which it is based on). But, that’s the point. This is a story about high class, Wall Street scumfucks and in particular one snobbish, narcissistic man that is so devoid of human emotion he must lash out against society in the form of mass murder. AP takes that story and slices and dices it with black humor, radio friendly pop songs, and exaggerated performances- almost to the point of questioning the seriousness of what you are viewing. This is the kind of movie some folks hate for having an ambiguous message/purpose, but that’s precisely what I adore about it. Well, I’d love to stay and finish this review, but I have to return some video tapes.
Full Title: Machete Directors: Ethan Maniquis and Robert Rodriguez Year: 2010 Comments: When I grow up, I want to be MACHETE! (pronounced muh shet tay not muh shetty). As a big fan of the fake Machete trailer in Grindhouse (2007) as well as director Robert Rodriguez’s work in general, this film was near the top of my list of highly anticipated, Must Sees of Twenty-Ten, and fortunately my expectations were satisfied. The plot involves a badass Mexican named Machete (Danny Trejo), who is instructed to off a racist, anti-immigration propaganda spewing Senator (Robert De Niro) for $150,000. Machete, an illegal immigrant himself, needs the money and accepts. As he is about to fire, he is shot at and he soon realizes the whole assassination was a set up to boost sympathy votes for the Senator and his anti-immigration policies. Now, Machete is on the run and the target of everyone from Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (Jessica Alba) to covert businessmen (Jeff Fahey). Machete also features Steven Seagal (he actually does a decent job!) as an evil druglord/nemesis of Machete, Michelle Rodriguez (looking fabulous as usual) as Shé, the leader of an underground network to support illegal immigrants, Cheech Marin as a renegade reverend/brother of Machete, and Lindsey Lohan also makes a few appearances, some without her clothes! Which, brings me to my next point, Machete is filled to the brim with buckets of blood- decapitations, intestines ripped out and used as ropes, you know all that good old family fun. Plus plenty of nudity, sex and other lurid imagery. This Mexploitation flick delivers a dish best served cold; in other words it’s a straight up gruesome, guy-action movie of that wonderfully, black/absurdist humor tinged Rodriguez/Tarantino, trashy, Grindhouse revival variety. Pheww that was a mouthful… Machete never fails to excite and entertain its audience because like most Rodriguez flicks it contains over the top, stylized violence mixed with a solid story, memorable characters, and witty, distinctive dialogue, separating it from your run of the mill action pieces of shit. On a final note, I dig the germane content of the film- illegal immigration, in light of the recent Arizona fiasco, though I don’t think this is a movie with a deep political message haha. In any case, I hope to see a Machete II in the future!
Grade: B+/A-
Full Title: Going the Distance Director: Nanette Burstein Year: 2010 Comments: Typically, I am not a fan of “Romantic Comedies,” with very few exceptions and this is one of them. Though, I did not love this film, I think it is respectable and worthy of some accolades. It certainly has its own little charm in a mixture of affectionate, gentle raunchiness with a practical love story. In brief, the plot concerns Garett (Justin Long), a young idealist/worker for a record label, who has just ended a long relationship, finding himself falling into another relationship with Erin (Drew Barrymore), the (Summer) girl of his dreams. Just one problem Summer ends… and this means Erin must leave New York and return to San Francisco for work. The remainder of the film centers around the two struggling to maintain this long distance relationship while also feeling conflicted between choosing love or following their careers. Overall, this movie is quite funny, but it drags on and does not really bring anything new to the table; it is quite typical and even a bit cliched: young, off-beat, idealist couple cannot decide between what’s best for each other or what’s best for themselves. And having the guy work at a label and complain about how young, cool, bands are not getting noticed is pretty standard and/or expected. The dialouge is overly cheesy at times to boot. But, there is plenty of quality aspects to this flick to save it from being an average Romantic Comedy. As I stated before, the humor is fairly strong here, not the funniest by any means, but definitely offered me plenty of laugh out loud moments, particularly from Dan (Charlie Day), the wacky best friend of the main character, Garrett, who unto himself is a cliched character, but I’ll forgive it because the performance of Charlie Day is so hilarious that it works. Essentially, he plays a toned down version of his character Charlie on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Being a huge fan of that show and that character specifically, this gave me a little personal reason for liking this film more than perhaps I normally would. So, will this be a movie we remember years down the line? Highly doubt it, it is far from the brilliance of (500) Days of Summer (2009), but it is in a league higher than most “chick flicks” and certainly worthy of a KLYAM recommendation. If this is your kind of a bag, then why not?
Grade: B-, I kind of feel like I am being too easy here, but I think I will stay with this grade for now.
Full Title The Wizard Of Oz Director(s): Victor Fleming, George Cukor, Mervyn LeRoy, King Vidor Year: 1939 Comments: This needs no introduction, the wonderful, coming of age, fantasy movie about discovering you need not look further than your backyard to find inspiration and/or happiness. I would argue this is amongst the top five or ten films to revolutionize cinema forever. Grade: A+
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Full Title: Spiderman 3 Director: Sam Raimi Year: 2007 Comments: This is definitely the weakest of the three Spidey flicks, but it isn’t terrible. It is still a good action packed, entertaining adventure. The story is interesting enough to follow through and the aciting is okay. The villians (Sandman and Venom) are decent characters, but neither generate the kind of hatred or terror one hopes to find in his Comic Book villians such as the antagonists in the previous two Spiderman movies (Green Goblin, Doc Ock, respectively). Overall, pretty average, worth seeing if you are a fan of Spiderman and/or this genre, if not, then you may or not dig this. The film fails to move beyond its basic plot and doesn’t bring anything new to the table. Grade: C+
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Full Title: Juno Director: Jason Reitman Year: 2007 Comments: I don’t care what people say about this movie, I love it! I know it has received overwhelming popularity and mostly positive reviews, but I truly think this is one of the best films of the past decade, or at least one of my favorites (# 2 for the 2000s) and it seems like that’s where people lose me. As a viewer and in general as a fan of any kind of art, one of the most vital qualities, if not the most vital quality is how memorable it is. And Junebug is chock full of lasting images, quotes, scenes, characters, and one of the most endearing soundtracks of all time. I am always glad to hear that people who normally would never listen to obscure music now know and love artists like Sonic Youth and Kimya Dawson because of this soundtrack. Speaking of Kimya, her songs (as the other artists’ music) fit astonishingly perfect in the film; as if they were made solely to be heard with this film, which of course none of them were, all having been recorded prior to director Jason Reitman contacting Kimya about collaborating. So yeah, this is highly KLYAM Recommended. Wizard! Grade: A+
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Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 