Lincoln

My thoughts on Lincoln in bullet-point format.

·         Daniel Day-Lewis will join Denzel Washington on the Best Actor list come Oscar time.

·         Joseph Gordon-Levitt is in this too?  Is there some sort of new rule that he must appear in 25% of all new movies?

·         Tommy Lee Jones looks old.  I mean old.  He's amazing and all, and it's nice to see him chew the shit out of all the scenery, but when did he get so painfully decrepit?  Just looking at the bags underhis eyes made me want to sleep for weeks.

·         Sally Field is amazing, which is good, because I think she's 33% of all women with speaking roles.

·         It's PG-13, but there are a few points where you might not be totally comfortable with a 13-15 year old watching.  At the very least, be ready for a healthy discussion afterwards.

·         Spielberg is in fine form with Lincoln but he still hasn't shaken his inability to end a film.  This could have been shortened by two scenes and a good 15 minutes and, like AI, it may have actually been better without the coda.

·         Moriarty playing Ulysses S. Grant was weird.

·         Every time you recognize a new character on screen, take a shot.  You'll be legally dead by the 50 minute mark.

·         I'm ready to say that this is the definitive Lincoln performance.  I'm glad that so much research was done.  According to historical sources, yes, his voice really did sound more like this and not some sort of bear-like rumble.

·         150 minutes rarely pass by so quickly.

·         The Biopic is the new War Movie.  Everybody wants in.

·         How many people are going to be genuinely surprised by the factual politics?  School does NOT go this in depth.

·         We need more imaginative name-calling in Congress.

·         I'm not big on biographies, but I want to read more about Lincoln and the 13th Amendment just because of this film.  Go see it.  Now.

Equilibrium

            HOW HAVE I NOT YET TOLD THE WORLD HOW MUCH I LOVE EQUILIBRIUM???

            On to the review!

            In 2002 we were introduced to a movie that fulfilled every red-blooded male’s (non-nude) fantasy.  Finally, a film that combined martial arts, gunplay, a dystopian future and a thinly-veiled nod to Fahrenheit 451.  Cleaner and more linear than 1999’s The Boondock Saints, Equilibrium delivered the concept of gun-kata: a mathematically sound martial art used to maximize one’s firing ability.  It also introduced audiences to Christian Bale as an action hero rather than just that crazy guy from American Psycho.

            In the future world that Equilibrium represents, feelings are illegal.  Everyone is on a mandatory dosage of Prozium (because Prozac is under copyright).  To guarantee that nobody ‘accidently’ has feelings, all works of art have also been banned.  Anyone found to be harboring books, artwork, music, etc. is guaranteed the death sentence.  Anyone who does not take their Prozium is labeled a Sense Offender and is guaranteed the death sentence.  Anyone who acts suspiciously is probably guaranteed a death sentence.  Your face is definitely guaranteed the death sentence.

            Christian Bale is John Preston, one of the highest ranking ‘Clerics’ of Libria, one of an unknown number of surviving cities.  Hell, Libria may be the last surviving ‘utopia’ of mankind.  Who knows?  Who cares?  Explosions!

            Anyways, Preston’s job as a Cleric is to hunt down and terminate Sense Offenders as well as burn any banned media, even if it is the original Mona Lisa.  Of course, all is not well as he soon discovers that his partner Partridge (Sean Bean) went off his Prozium quite some time ago.  Guess what?  (SPOILER) Sean Bean dies in this film.  This fits well into my theory that if Sean Bean dies the movie is good. 

            No time for mourning  (since emotions are illegal and all) so Preston gets a new partner right quick.  His new partner, Brandt (Taye Diggs), is a far less pleasant person; willing to do anything in his power to rise up the Clerical ranks as quickly as possible.  As Preston begins to question his role in the world, Brandt may have a very real opportunity to move up very far, very quickly.

            Equilibrium does have a bit of romance shoehorned in, and it’s to the acting credit of Bale and Emily Watson (as Mary O’Brien) that it isn’t laughable.  The rest of the film is dedicated to violence.  Both the gunplay and hand-to-hand combat are smooth, brutal and efficient.  For the most part Equilibrium wants to spend as much time as possible showing off its shiny toys.

            In all reality, Equilibrium tanked at the box office, taking in less than 10% of its estimated budget from the U.S. release.  It recouped a bit more worldwide but I’m honestly not sure if it broke even.

            I don’t care about that.  It is most certainly a cult classic today.  I loved the movie the first time I saw it as a 22 year old, and I loved it when I watched it on Sunday as a 31 year old.  Sometimes you just want to watch one guy shoot 20 men.

Then kick them.

Fish Story

            It's difficult writing about a movie where everything is confusing as hell until the very end.  You can't talk about the plot without taking the risk of giving away the entire film.  So instead, I'll try to convince you to watch a really good movie without actually talking much about it.

On to the review!

            A friend helpfully requested I review a movie that is not horrible and I gladly added it to my Netflix queue.  Funnily enough, I had already seen it.  Unfunnily enough, I had blanked this amazing film from my mind.  Maybe it was just too good for me?

            It's called Fish Story, a Japanese film released in 2009.  It does not take place in one static time period.  Instead, Fish Story unfolds over a period of decades.

             The basic premise is that the end of the world is nigh due to a huge comet hurtling towards Earth.  The streets are deserted, everything closed except for one lone record store.  A few wanderers make their way there out of curiosity.  There they end up being played a song called Fish Story from an unremembered band that was way ahead of their time.

            The man running the store insists that somehow that song, its very existence, will save the world.

            Sounds pretty weird, right?  How does a song laid down on vinyl end up saving civilization 37 years later?

            Think of Fish Story as Japan's Mulholland Drive, only with an ending that makes sense and with less lesbian nudity.  They both jump around all over the place and they both often leave the viewer scrambling to find purchase.  If you don't pay attention you may end up hopelessly lost.

            What I enjoyed about it most was how well everything interconnects.  Interspersed between scenes of the band working on and recording their song, entire lives unfold around them.  Things happen to people that don't make much sense in context, but at the end of the film everything snaps into focus.

            At times touching and at other times quirky and amusing, Fish Story does its best to keep the viewer's attention through sheer force of will.  A movie like this could have easily become inane or downright terrible but it's to the credit of superb writing and excellent acting that it never falters.  I absolutely love the characters, and the more you learn about the band's history and actions the more you come to enjoy their time on screen.  On my second viewing, I found myself smiling and humming along as they finally record their opus. 

            Is that enough for you?  Does knowing that a movie is worth your time and attention but still not knowing much more than you could cull from Wikipedia or IMDB make you want to see it?  I hope it does.  You really should make time for Fish Story.

            Who knows, it may help you save the world.

Killing Them Softly

No intro today, let's get straight into the review.

            This weekend I went to a matinee showing of Killing Them Softly, the third directorial effort of Andrew Dominik.  His only other works are Chopper and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.  Interestingly enough all three of Mr. Dominik's movies have a rating between 7 and 8 on IMDB, and all three of them apparently impressed critics while confusing the ever-loving shit out of audiences.

            Case in point: as I was walking out of the theater afterwards, the middle-aged woman in front of me turned to her husband and proclaimed "From a scale of one to ten, I give that a three." 

            While I felt a bit more generous, I certainly understood where she was coming from.

            You see, Killing Them Softly is not a movie per-se.  It is more like an arthouse interpretation of a mafia film.  The trailer itself isn't as misleading as Adventureland, but it most certainly promises you far more action than you're going to get.  I would say that almost two-thirds of Killing Them Softly's action is present in the trailer.   So if you're expecting something like The Italian Job you're going to be sorely disappointed.

            Set in a shitty, run-down city with no name, Killing Me Softly devotes the first half hour to the planning and execution of a robbery, then takes a sudden turn.  Instead of following the two relatively inept low-level crooks as they deal with the fallout, it instead jumps between a dozen different characters, most of whom are involved with an unknown Mafia-type organization, be they operatives, thugs or hitmen.

            If it sounds like I'm having a hard time describing the film, well, that's because I am.  Ostensibly it should be cut-and-dry.  Two guys rob an underground card game, then the people in charge of the game go hunting for the robbers.  It's just not that simple, and if I were to try to explain in better, I would ruin it.

            What I can say is that the cinematography is absolutely gorgeous.  Every single scene is perfect, and while I may not have enjoyed every close-up, angle or effect, I can't argue with how well-framed they all were.  On top of that, the sound design also blew me away.  I'm not an expert by any means, but the way all the sounds were integrated heightened every scene.  The same goes for the soundtrack; I may not have appreciated every song, but they always worked.

            When all is said and done, I can't call Killing Them Softly a gritty movie, but I can say it just felt real.  At times real boring, at others real impressive, but always with a strange feeling that you're only one step away from a documentary.  Hell, because of the camera work and sound design, there's one part in the film where it seems like they're actually beating the shit out of Ray Liotta.

            All in all, Killing Them Softly is not a movie that I would recommend to the everyday moviegoer.  There's definitely something there for cineastes, but it's just too far off the beaten path for the rest of us.  It's not exactly Reservoir Dogs.