Brendan Gleeson

In that last post of things I like I mentioned Brendan Gleeson. After I wrote the post, however, I thought I'd expand on that a bit.

Last night, Laura and I watched The Guard, which is a gritty and delightful dark comedy about a cop in rural Ireland who is fighting the drug trade. I'd highly recommend it and, for people like me who cancelled their netflix accounts last year, it's currently in the redbox.

Watching it also reminded me that I can't think of any movie starring Brendan Gleeson that I don't like. He's best known as Mad Eye Moody in the Harry Potter films, but he's also in Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York and in the delightful dark comedy In Bruges. Laura and I liked In Bruges so much, in fact, that we actually went to Bruges while we were backpacking through Europe.

A few new things

I have a few new things to say today. First, have you checked out my other blog about Provo? I would truly love it if you did, and I post new stuff a lot.

Next, Melancholia was a really great film.

And finally, two annoyances: first, I have come to hate plot synopsis in movie reviews. Tell me if it's worth seeing. Raise some interesting questions. Point out the allusions and references. But don't waste my time on a plot that I'll either learn about soon enough, or won't ever care about.

Also, I was saddened today to learn that they are making an Indiana Jones 5. The first and third of those movies are fun, but the fourth was one of the most painful cinema experiences I can remember. Truly horrible. I guess the 5th movie literally can't be any worse, but still.

Billy Crystal

How is Billy Crystal hosting the Oscars? Sure, mostly old people watch the telecast, and sure, mostly old people think Billy Crystal is funny. But seriously! He hasn't done anything worth mentioning in recent memory. And, in fact, he hasn't done much worth mentioning ever. When Harry Met Sally is a bland, only mildly entertaining knockoff of every Woody Allen movie ever made. City Slickers is alright.

I'm not going to talk about relevancy. The Oscars don't seem concerned with remaining relevant to a new generation (despite last year's host experiment). But dredging up an old, burned out actor just seems so pointless.

Movies I have watched “lately”

Below are the movies I’ve watched in the last little while. My favorites were probably Monsters, Elegy, and Insomnia, though I’d recommend all of them.

Mary and Max
Union Station
Network
Monsters
Elegy
Clerks
Paper Heart
Insomnia
Inside Job

Movies I have watched "lately"

So I moved about a week and a half ago. That meant no instant streaming while we set up internet at our new home, plus way less time to watch movies generally. So here is the very small list, which spans probably at least two weeks.

Black Swan
The Knack... and How to Get It
Mean Streets (I'm actually still in the process of watching this one)
Megamind

I also watched significant parts of:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Darling

I listed those last two separately because, unlike Mean Streets, there is a good chance that I won't finish them. Neither were terrible, but neither were great either and I just don't have the time for them at the moment.

Movies I have watched this week (or so)

Hanna

2010: The Year We Make Contact

Restrepo

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

The King's Speech

Valley Girl

Dear Murderer

Smiles of a Summer Night

All of these films ended up being pretty great, but my favorites were probably Hanna, Dear Murderer, and Smiles of a Summer Night.

To Each Her/His Own (Movies)

So my last post might need a little explanation. As a Mormon, I frequently encounter the belief that people should not watch movies filled with sex, violence, swearing, etc. Many, many Mormons also believe that people should not watch movies that are rated R by the MPAA.

Personally I disagree with these beliefs. I believe films have to portray difficult, sometimes graphic content in order to make positive points. (Think of a film like Schindler's List, for example.) Not watching these movies, or editing out part's that the filmmaker obviously thought were important, isolates viewers and impedes intellectual and spiritual growth, in my opinion. Also, like many people, I believe the MPAA is a wildly corrupt institution.

But, in the end I don't really care what people do. There's a limited amount of time and some people like me chose to watch a lot of films, and other people chose to other things. To each her/his own.

But what annoys me is when people try to tell me A) I should not watch movies that I consider uplifting because they contain "bad parts," B) That it's better to watch edited versions of movies, C) It's bad to have graphic content in movies, D) that they love movies but don't watch R rated movies.

A) To each her/his own. Somewhat paradoxically, I know, I expect people to reciprocate that attitude. At least when it comes to things like movies.

B) Edited movies are still technically rated R, or whatever the MPAA assigned them. In other countries there is no "R" rating. A movie is the vision of a group of artists and to cut it up is disrespectful. It disrupts the movie. Blah, blah, blah. There are a million reasons that watching edited movies is bad. If you want to watch edited movies, I suppose that's you're right, but don't tell me to do the same. And don't tell other people to do the same without giving the other side of the argument a chance to voice their views.

C) Brigham Young, a once-prominent Mormon, once pointed out that the arts have to portray evil to show good. Fast forward to today, when a church leader recently said media should not "portray" anything AT ALL that is bad. Yikes. Obviously, that would mean ending all media production. I don't know what this leader was going for, but I wish people would consider what they're saying when the constantly quote stuff like this.

D) And finally, if you are a film buff, you have to watch the classics. Things like "The Godfather," and "Raging Bull." The best picture-winning "Midnight Cowboy," which is also on AFI's list of all-time greatest films, was even rated X! I don't care if people watch these films or not, but don't go around pretending to be into films and then say you're unwilling to watch these masterpieces.

It's probably worth mentioning that this post stems from an incident that occurred at a church meeting recently. Like usual, people were talking about the supposed decline in civilized values and how evil the media apparently is. I was playing angry birds.

But then, this guy started rambling on about how he saw the PG-13 version of "The King's Speech" and how great it was. The movie is good, but the PG-13 version cuts out some important stuff. The swearing in that movie has a purpose and is vital to the story, unlike so many movies (rated everything from G to PG-13) where the swearing is just put in for laughs, or to make the movie more "hard core." Cutting out those parts or editing over them (which the filmmakers expressly condemned in this case) dilutes the point (which is, of all things, charity). (Note, there is more cut out of the PG-13 version than some people realize.)

Anyway, this guy at church was annoying and, ultimately, talking moronically about things I love, study, and work hard to understand. It was frustrating and I just wanted to yell that we should all just be able to do whatever we think is best. But of course, as always, I didn't.

You can't be a film buff...

...cinephile, or cineaste if you categorically refuse to watch any particular kind of film. Or films with any particular rating. Sure, you can say you like movies or whatever, but you're not a true lover of the art form if you haven't seen the classics (or if you've only seen edited or "clean" — meaning chopped up and ruined — versions). Sorry.

(Obviously, if you've chosen to not watch some kinds of films or those with any particular rating, the world of film buff-ery may just not be for you. If you've made that decision, that reality obviously isn't abhorrent to you.)

Movies I have watched this week...

... or, rather, in the last week and a couple of days. Anyway here are the good ones:

Sisters
Tell No One
The Kids Are Alright

Unfortunately, I also watched a few mediocre or downright bad films in the last few days. Here are the mediocre ones:

The Other Guys
Despite not being much of a Will Ferrell fan, this film got decent reviews. I also typically like cop movies, and so I had high hopes. As it turns out, though, I found the movie kind of hit and miss. It wasn't terrible, but I wasn't all the entertained either. There were funny moments, but overall I'd describe this film as boring.

Paul
I had even high hopes for this film because it was made by the same people who did Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead, both which were great. This film also got good reviews. However, Paul seemed filmed with cheap jokes and cardboard characters. It didn't have the charm of the team's earlier work, and seemed to generally convey what must be British stereotypes of the United States. I didn't hate this movie, but as with The Other Guys, I was kind of bored by it.

I also watched one downright bad movie this week. It was:

Revolver
Again, high hopes and dashed expectations. This film is directed by Guy Ritchie, who did Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which is one of my favorite films. Ritchie also did Snatch, which is pretty decent too. But for some reason Revolver was terrible. It was confusing and pretentious, and lacked the almost palpable setting of Ritchie's earlier films. By the end, I kept checking the timer on the instant streaming thing to see how long was left. So don't bother watching this movie.

Movies I have watched this week

This week I didn't have to work insane hours, and Laura and I were sick over the weekend. So, we got in some good movie watching. Here's the list (not necessarily in the order we watched them in):

Black Hawk Down

Traffic

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked The Honet's Nest

Toy Story 3

Let the Right One In

Tron Legacy

127 Hours

(In retrospect we had a generally violent, surprisingly Swedish week of films.)

Movies I have watched this week

This week I worked crazy hours, and Laura and I also watched the mini series Downton Abbey (which takes more time than a two hour film). As a result, the number of titles I've watched is lower this week than normal. But here they are:

Downton Abbey

It Might Get Loud

The Man from Planet X

32 Short Films About Glenn Gould

Lenny

Sam Fuller and Netflix

I want to know why Netflix has only two Sam Fuller films for instant streaming. Seriously. These are old movies that ought to be easily accessible. Get on this Netflix.

Movies I have watched this week

Typically I only watch good movies, so consider all of these recommended:

The Killing
Herb and Dorothy
Night and the City
The Runaways
The Parking Lot Movie

Monday Movie: Fail-Safe

Sidney Lumet's 1964 classic Fail-Safe shares its premise with the classic dark comedy Dr. Strangelove: in the midst of Cold War brinkmanship the Americans go too far and inadvertently let a nuke loose on the U.S.S.R. However, while Dr. Strangelove is hilarious and dark, Fail-Safe is searingly bleak. It's an attempt to honestly explore the incomprehensible horror of preparing to begin a nuclear war.

The film stars the patriarchal Henry Fonda as the president of the United States. The cast also includes Walter Matthau. And while I won't spoil the movie's ending, it does somehow manage to be entertaining while including a surprising, horrific, and thought-provoking finale.

(Also, I think you can watch the entire movie in 10 minute segments on Youtube, beginning here. I netflixed it, so I can't be sure the entire movie is there, but from looking at the related links it appears to be.)

Monday Movie: Primer

Primer is one of the most confusing movies I've ever watched. Luckily, it's also one of the more interesting as well. And that means that this shoe-string-budget, Sundance gem is definitely worth watching.

The story follows two entrepreneurial young engineers, as they accidentally invent a time machine. It's a familiar premise in science fiction, but what makes Primer stand out among time-travel movies is that it really tries to grapple with the complexities and paradoxes of messing with time.

At first, for example, the two guys just use their machine to make successful stock purchases. Everything seems innocent enough, until their plans become more complex, other people seem to discover the machine, and chaos ensues. I've actually seen this movie twice and I'm still not sure how everything fits together.

However, the great thing is that I imagine that's about how confusing real time travel would be. The point of the movie, in any case, isn't to make perfect sense (though I suspect it would if you sat down and plotted the different threads on a piece of paper). Instead, it aims to explore the relationships and psychology behind a paradoxical ideal, and in that objective, the movie is successful (and intriguing).

Monday Movie: Topaz

You've probably at least seen clips of Psycho and The Birds. Maybe you've seen those films in their entirety. And you may even have watched Vertigo and North by Northwest. But have you seen Topaz?

Topaz is an Alfred Hitchcock classic, albeit a lesser known one compared to some of the director's other work. Still, almost everything of Hitchcock's is fantastic (though I didn't really enjoy The Trouble With Harry), and Topaz stands out for being especially vibrant and colorful. It's also much more expansive in it's setting than some of Hitchcock's more spatially restrained work. (Rope and Lifeboat being two extreme examples of Hitchcock restricting the action of a film to a singular location, but there are others.)

I first saw this movie one summer when I checked out literally dozens of Hitchcock films from the Provo Library. And though it's not as well-known as some, it's actually one of my personal Hitchcock favorites.

The plot involves Russian missiles in Cuba, a French diplomat traveling to and from Cuba, trying to get information—and some extramarital lovin on the side—and a spy ring called "topaz." In general, however, the plot is basically all about the intrigues of the cold war and how different people and governments tried to manipulate them to their own ends. (Read wikipedia if you actually want a real summary of the plot. Or, watch the movie).

Monday Movie: The Big Sleep

There are few film genres as viscerally fun (or as socially conscious) as film noir, and one of the best examples of the genre is the 1946 The Big Sleep. The film is adapted from a Raymond Chandler novel of the same name, and while the book is good, the film is better. (In my opinion, film noir/crime film is a richer medium than than written crime literature/detective fiction.)

It stars the soft-on-the-inside Humphrey Bogart and the ineffably glamorous Lauren Bacall, who didn't just make a great on-screen pair, but were also married in real life. Bogart plays Phillip Marlow, the star of much of Chandler's fiction, and Bacall is the femme fatale. It you've never seen a film noir, or aren't sure what that phrase even means, watch this movie and you'll have your definition.

Of course, some people claim that Double Indemnity is the quintessential film noir, and others (aptly) point out that Bogart was really too much of a softie to be a great noir detective. Still, The Big Sleep is simultaneously entertaining, suspenseful, and a a perfect example of what has made film noir one of the most enduring and (eventually) respected film genres. Plus, while Double Indemnity sets up the archetypal characteristics of the genre, The Big Sleep puts them to a more satisfying use. In any case, check it out. It's a fantastic introduction to it's genre, as well as to some of the greatest stars of the silver screen. (BTW: Lauren Bacall was awarded an Academy Honorary Award at the most recent Oscars.)

Monday Movie: Million Dollar Baby

This month is Poetry Month. I have a blog about poetry that a wrote a few days ago and still need to post, but in the meantime, today's Monday Movie is... Million Dollar Baby.

If you've only heard of this movie, or if it's been a while since you watched it, you might be wondering what it has to do with Poetry Month. However, this movie is actually all about Yeats' poem "The Lake Isle of Innisfrey."

Superficially, Million Dollar Baby is about a female boxer, played by Hillary Swank, and her reluctant trainer, played by Clint Eastwood (who also directs the film). Morgan Freeman serves as the film's narrator, and the boxing gym's janitor.

Oddly, perhaps, Eastwood's character also studies Gaelic throughout the film and happens to enjoy Yeats. Once Swank's character begins competing as a boxer, he even givers her a Gaelic nickname, which endears her to fans across the world.

The Gaelic/Yeats connection, however, is more profound. Though only a few lines of "The Lake Isle of Innisfrey" are read in the movie, the themes between it and the film are highly analogous. In fact, I would almost call Million Dollar Baby an adaptation of the poem because it is essentially about the same thing. Eastwood's character (the protagonist) is even overtly driven by the poem.

In any case, it's a touching, if tragic, film that also is one of recent cinema's more successful uses of poetry. (You can read about a few more if you want in this poetry movie countdown that I wrote for Rhombus).

Monday Movie: Annie Hall

Most people seem to have heard of Woody Allen, but a lot of people haven't seen very many (or any) of his films. Which I think is a real shame. Though Allen's films don't always play in the local cineplex, they're usually smart, witty, and highly entertaining. After putting for a little extra effort to watch his work, Allen has even become one of my favorite directors.

So, today's Monday Movie is... Annie Hall. If you're even remotely familiar with Woody Allen, this may well be the movie you've seen. If you're a fan, this recommendation might seem redundant, or even worthy of eye rolling (it's like telling a science fiction fan to check out Star Wars.)

However, this recommendation is specifically for people who aren't familiar with the director's work, which, sadly, seems to be a lot of people. The film is a romantic comedy, but one with a brain. Allen himself stars, along with Diane Keaton, who together make one of cinema's great on-screen couples.

Like all of Allen's work, Annie Hall is also highly inter-textual, constantly referencing literature, psychology, film history, philosophy, and other things. Yet even if you don't catch the many allusions in the movie, it's still a charming story about the ups and downs of love. It's also a great example of how Allen uses experimental techniques for comic effect.

So if you haven't seen Annie Hall, or if you just haven't seen it lately, get ready for an evening of neuroses, self-analysis, and hypochondria. And

, of course, hilarity.

Monday Movie: The Ox Bow Incident

For many people, Westerns mean long, boring movies about cowboys. And the genre certainly has plenty of those. However, Westerns can also be taut, trilling explorations of social issues, which is the case in The Ox Bow Incident.

The film was made in 1943 (and is in black and white), and stars Henry Fonda. If you're not already into Westerns, that might sound like exactly the kind of movie that you don't want to watch.

Yet, the film also is about fear, paranoia, and mob mentality. It tells the story of a small town, plagued by cattle rustlers. Eventually, the town forms a posse and goes out to get the rustlers. When they find a few men camping outside of town, the posse decides they must be the thieves and decides to hang them. Much of the film's narrative revolves around the debate over the accused rustlers' innocence or guilt.

It's a timely film for today, because our society is still struggling with how to treat the accused, and how to avoid the problems of mob mentality. So if you want an intelligent introduction to the Western, or just another great film to watch, try The Ox Bow Incident.