6 Short Reviews
This past week has been very busy between graduating from college and moving back into my house. I have seen several films but too much time has passed since I have seen them to be able to do proper reviews. So instead I will just sum up my thoughts and then hopefully move on to doing full reviews again. Two of these films are among the best I’ve ever seen.
The Proposition (2005) – 9.5/10: A fully complex Western through the revisionist style. Nick Cave constructs both a brilliant screenplay that explores the grey areas of character and morality within the setting and a score that experiments with industrial sounds and classical instruments. Ray Winstone puts in his best performance as Captain Morris Stanley. Some of the dialogue has a surrealistic quality to it as well from John Hurt and Danny Huston’s characters. The Proposition is a realistically and brutally violent and fully engrossing film that grabs you and stays with you for days after seeing it. This is one of the absolute best of the decade.
Dancer in the Dark (2000) – 9.7/10: This is a film that many will have reasons for hating and each are understandable in their own right. For me though, this was the most traumatic, frustrating, impressively defiant and beautifully unique films I have ever seen ranking in my top 10 of the 2000’s. Von Trier is experimenting with genre with the musical, melodrama and his own co-created movement Dogme 95. It is brutal to watch and Von Trier delights in putting both his audience and his lead actress through the ringer right up until the very end. Some have a problem with this but not me as it makes for a bravely full experience in its obsessive need to see Selma’s experiences through to the end. The songs are all incredibly strong enhancing Selma’s pride, simplicity and stubbornness with the highlight being “I’ve Seen it All”, normally heard as a duet with Thom Yorke but with Peter Stormare supplying the duet in the film. Bjork gives a performance for the ages as Selma, ranking in my Top 5 performances of the 2000’s. After seeing it, it makes sense why she would never act again after seeing it. Overall Dancer in the Dark will turn off many but it moved me profoundly as an exploration of genre mixing and emotional torture.
Julia (2009) 6.5/10: Speaking of incredible performances, Tilda Swinton appears giving THE performance of 2009 with her portrayal of the title character in this character driven thriller. The film itself has problems; the last act is hazy and unsure of itself, outstaying its welcome. The child actor who played Tom was unnatural which clashed with Swinton’s acting abilities. Also, the film could have been 15 minutes shorter without losing much. The film generally though has a lot to offer with its unflinching portrayal of Julia and its fearlessness of a woman who makes bad decision after bad decision. There is also a great performance by Saul Rubinek. The main reason to see Julia though is Tilda Swinton who, well, what hasn’t been said about this performance already? She knocks this out of the park showing a fierceness few are willing to go to.
Le Fille du Rer (The Girl on the Train) (2010): 7.4/10: A good if not great film that explores one woman’s motivations through the events leading up to a desperate act for attention. Based on a true story, the film is ultimately quite mild but very interesting throughout, telling a different story. The film gets unbalanced through its focus on a related story which does not blend as well as it would like. Its success is in Andre Techine and his observations of a simple girl whose dependence switches from her mother to her boyfriend. Her pastime is rollerblading which is all she needs to be comfortable and Techine shows scenes of her rollerblading to exemplify her basic needs and simultaneous denial of basic responsibilities. This avoidance will parallel her actions later as she avoids her own issues in a more outlandish fashion. Catherine Deneuve plays her mother Louise, the film’s most interesting character who gets individual development instead of simply existing as someone who has scenes with Jeanne. The Girl on the Train is a really strong film that might not stay with you for long but is one of the year’s stronger efforts so far and well worth seeing.
Lola Montes (1955) 8/10: Ophuls and his constantly moving camera can never be anything but compellingly graceful. In this unconventional biopic, Ophuls’ final film gets a full restoration after decades of chopped up cuts. This was his only use of color which is a shame because it is one of the most stunning uses of it in a film. While the story itself is quite interesting, Ophuls has always been the strongest aspect of an Ophuls film. His mise en scene represents Lola’s constant need to keep moving forward, her imprisonment by convention, her breaking out of societies’ convention in addition to adding to the framing stories’ circus setting. Lola Montes is a beautiful film that, while not as good as Letter from an Unknown Woman, impressed me more than La Ronde. The film also features a standout performance from Peter Ustinov.
Fingersmith (2005) 8/10: A BBC adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel, one of my 5 favorite books. Overall the adaptation works impressively well majorly due to its performance from Sally Hawkins as Sue Trindon, a supporting performance that nearly steals the show by Imelda Staunton and a screenplay that faithfully adapts the novel fully capturing the Dickensian crime world and the characterization. However, Maud Lilly, my favorite character was a bit miscast by Elaine Cassidy. She is very good but might not have been the right choice for the role. Also, the last act is paced a bit unevenly and the second part is condensed too much. Thank goodness the BBC for not shying away from the homosexual content when other networks might have faded or dissolved during extremely important moments. Overall this was a mostly great adaptation of a novel that means a lot to me and that I love so dearly.
The Proposition (2005) – 9.5/10: A fully complex Western through the revisionist style. Nick Cave constructs both a brilliant screenplay that explores the grey areas of character and morality within the setting and a score that experiments with industrial sounds and classical instruments. Ray Winstone puts in his best performance as Captain Morris Stanley. Some of the dialogue has a surrealistic quality to it as well from John Hurt and Danny Huston’s characters. The Proposition is a realistically and brutally violent and fully engrossing film that grabs you and stays with you for days after seeing it. This is one of the absolute best of the decade.
Dancer in the Dark (2000) – 9.7/10: This is a film that many will have reasons for hating and each are understandable in their own right. For me though, this was the most traumatic, frustrating, impressively defiant and beautifully unique films I have ever seen ranking in my top 10 of the 2000’s. Von Trier is experimenting with genre with the musical, melodrama and his own co-created movement Dogme 95. It is brutal to watch and Von Trier delights in putting both his audience and his lead actress through the ringer right up until the very end. Some have a problem with this but not me as it makes for a bravely full experience in its obsessive need to see Selma’s experiences through to the end. The songs are all incredibly strong enhancing Selma’s pride, simplicity and stubbornness with the highlight being “I’ve Seen it All”, normally heard as a duet with Thom Yorke but with Peter Stormare supplying the duet in the film. Bjork gives a performance for the ages as Selma, ranking in my Top 5 performances of the 2000’s. After seeing it, it makes sense why she would never act again after seeing it. Overall Dancer in the Dark will turn off many but it moved me profoundly as an exploration of genre mixing and emotional torture.
Julia (2009) 6.5/10: Speaking of incredible performances, Tilda Swinton appears giving THE performance of 2009 with her portrayal of the title character in this character driven thriller. The film itself has problems; the last act is hazy and unsure of itself, outstaying its welcome. The child actor who played Tom was unnatural which clashed with Swinton’s acting abilities. Also, the film could have been 15 minutes shorter without losing much. The film generally though has a lot to offer with its unflinching portrayal of Julia and its fearlessness of a woman who makes bad decision after bad decision. There is also a great performance by Saul Rubinek. The main reason to see Julia though is Tilda Swinton who, well, what hasn’t been said about this performance already? She knocks this out of the park showing a fierceness few are willing to go to.
Le Fille du Rer (The Girl on the Train) (2010): 7.4/10: A good if not great film that explores one woman’s motivations through the events leading up to a desperate act for attention. Based on a true story, the film is ultimately quite mild but very interesting throughout, telling a different story. The film gets unbalanced through its focus on a related story which does not blend as well as it would like. Its success is in Andre Techine and his observations of a simple girl whose dependence switches from her mother to her boyfriend. Her pastime is rollerblading which is all she needs to be comfortable and Techine shows scenes of her rollerblading to exemplify her basic needs and simultaneous denial of basic responsibilities. This avoidance will parallel her actions later as she avoids her own issues in a more outlandish fashion. Catherine Deneuve plays her mother Louise, the film’s most interesting character who gets individual development instead of simply existing as someone who has scenes with Jeanne. The Girl on the Train is a really strong film that might not stay with you for long but is one of the year’s stronger efforts so far and well worth seeing.
Lola Montes (1955) 8/10: Ophuls and his constantly moving camera can never be anything but compellingly graceful. In this unconventional biopic, Ophuls’ final film gets a full restoration after decades of chopped up cuts. This was his only use of color which is a shame because it is one of the most stunning uses of it in a film. While the story itself is quite interesting, Ophuls has always been the strongest aspect of an Ophuls film. His mise en scene represents Lola’s constant need to keep moving forward, her imprisonment by convention, her breaking out of societies’ convention in addition to adding to the framing stories’ circus setting. Lola Montes is a beautiful film that, while not as good as Letter from an Unknown Woman, impressed me more than La Ronde. The film also features a standout performance from Peter Ustinov.
Fingersmith (2005) 8/10: A BBC adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel, one of my 5 favorite books. Overall the adaptation works impressively well majorly due to its performance from Sally Hawkins as Sue Trindon, a supporting performance that nearly steals the show by Imelda Staunton and a screenplay that faithfully adapts the novel fully capturing the Dickensian crime world and the characterization. However, Maud Lilly, my favorite character was a bit miscast by Elaine Cassidy. She is very good but might not have been the right choice for the role. Also, the last act is paced a bit unevenly and the second part is condensed too much. Thank goodness the BBC for not shying away from the homosexual content when other networks might have faded or dissolved during extremely important moments. Overall this was a mostly great adaptation of a novel that means a lot to me and that I love so dearly.
Horrorphile
I really enjoyed Julia.
Good reviews and congrats on graduation.