For years, I've thoroughly enjoyed Netflix. I remember staying up
until 4am during my freshman year of college just watching film after
film on Netflix. Over the past few years, I've seen some really great
(and some really horrible) movies on Netflix. Here's a few I've seen recently...
Surprisingly Good Movies:
- The Game
- Stolen
- Trapped
- The Cider House Rules
- Red State
- Trust
- Nightwatch
- Crash
Decent Ones:
- Wrecked
- Flirting with Disaster
- The High Cost of Living
- Shadowboxer
- Hannibal
- Rosemary's Baby
- The Secret
Terrible Ones:
- What Dreams May Come
- Every Day
- The Lake Effect
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Total Recall, Premium Rush, Beautiful Boy, AND Lawless
In the last few days, I've seen an assortment of random movies. All were good, but very different from one another.
Total Recall (2012) -
Initial Expectation: I need something mind numbing and this should be dumb enough to do that while still keeping me mildly entertained.
End Thoughts: It was actually a lot better than I expected. I know a ton of critics ripped it apart and I honestly think they were being unjustly harsh. Total Recall gives you everything you'd expect from it (and maybe a tiny bit more with its twists). It isn't going to make you rethink your life or answer deep questions about the universe, but it doesn't have to. It's entertainment. It's two hours full of action and stress and cool fight scenes. I've always liked "guy" movies, so it was right up my alley. Plus, Colin Farrell is easy on the eyes. Seriously. He looks really good in this movie. I don't know what it is about him; I just really like him and find him charming. Anyway, in my opinion, not a bad film, not phenomenal, but I never expected it to be and it turned out better than I anticipated.
Premium Rush (2012) -
Initial Expectation: This will be entertaining because Joseph Gordon-Levitt almost always makes smart choices when choosing films.
End Thoughts: Yeah. It was entertaining. But after sitting through two hours of Total Recall, it wasn't enough to hold my whole attention. It's literally an hour and a half of bike riding. I mean, there is a mild plot line and some interesting interactions between characters, but it's mostly bikes. The filmmakers seem to want to point out how cool bike riding is and, I will admit, I walked out the theater considering buying a bike (I'm still semi-contemplating it). Parts of the film were slow and dragged a little and the background audio/music was awkwardly turned down a little low. They tried to fit "Baba O'Riley" by the Who into the beginning of the film (maybe to make it seem more badass) and it didn't really fit. The rest of the music, including songs by the Raconteurs and Manchester Orchestra, was more fitting, but, again, the audio for it was turned down too low. Maybe that was the movie theater's fault, I'm not sure.
Beautiful Boy (2010) -
Initial Expectation: This will be sad.
End Thought: That was sad. But the theme of the film wasn't wallowing in sadness and oh, look how horrible these people's lives are! The main message of the film was about reconnection and growth after tragedy and how different people deal with the pain. The main character of the film isn't the boy who shot up the school. The parents are the central focus and continue to be throughout the entirety of the film. At the start of the film, before the school shooting, the father (Michael Sheen) is already apartment shopping and planning on moving out soon. The mother (Maria Bello) wants the family to go on one more vacation before they commit to separating. The next day, their son kills 22 classmates and himself at his college and the parents are left devastated, grief-stricken, and very confused. They have to learn how to trust one another again because they are the only two people who understand the pain of their situation. They are met with sympathy, anger, and avoidance by people they know. It's a sad film, but not depressing. It's actually kind of encouraging and uplifting, though it doesn't end on a falsely happy note. The truth of it is painful, especially in the wake of the Aurora shootings, but it gives the audience new perspective on situations like this and new understanding of different people's pain in such situations.
Lawless (2012) -
Initial Expectation: Well, I had already seen this film at Cannes in May, so I knew how great it was...
End Thoughts: ...but seeing it a second time made me love it even more. Tom Hardy is a beast. The man can pretty much do anything. This doesn't sound like a very professional review and it isn't. I originally reviewed the film critically and analytically a couple months ago when I first saw it at the festival. This time I was able to enjoy the film more fully (without loud French people talking around me) and I was able to understand it better. Shia LaBeouf regained my respect with this performance (he lost it with those awful Transformers movies...). In fact, the whole cast fits together nicely and is well-casted. It is a pretty violent film, more violent than I remember it being, but I don't really get offended by that kind of violence, so it didn't bother me. The film has elements of Tarantino and the Coen brothers in it, but John Hillcoat gives it his own flavor as well. It is both realistic and fantastical at the same time. I can't wait to buy it on Blu-ray.
Total Recall (2012) -
Initial Expectation: I need something mind numbing and this should be dumb enough to do that while still keeping me mildly entertained.
End Thoughts: It was actually a lot better than I expected. I know a ton of critics ripped it apart and I honestly think they were being unjustly harsh. Total Recall gives you everything you'd expect from it (and maybe a tiny bit more with its twists). It isn't going to make you rethink your life or answer deep questions about the universe, but it doesn't have to. It's entertainment. It's two hours full of action and stress and cool fight scenes. I've always liked "guy" movies, so it was right up my alley. Plus, Colin Farrell is easy on the eyes. Seriously. He looks really good in this movie. I don't know what it is about him; I just really like him and find him charming. Anyway, in my opinion, not a bad film, not phenomenal, but I never expected it to be and it turned out better than I anticipated.
Premium Rush (2012) -
Initial Expectation: This will be entertaining because Joseph Gordon-Levitt almost always makes smart choices when choosing films.
End Thoughts: Yeah. It was entertaining. But after sitting through two hours of Total Recall, it wasn't enough to hold my whole attention. It's literally an hour and a half of bike riding. I mean, there is a mild plot line and some interesting interactions between characters, but it's mostly bikes. The filmmakers seem to want to point out how cool bike riding is and, I will admit, I walked out the theater considering buying a bike (I'm still semi-contemplating it). Parts of the film were slow and dragged a little and the background audio/music was awkwardly turned down a little low. They tried to fit "Baba O'Riley" by the Who into the beginning of the film (maybe to make it seem more badass) and it didn't really fit. The rest of the music, including songs by the Raconteurs and Manchester Orchestra, was more fitting, but, again, the audio for it was turned down too low. Maybe that was the movie theater's fault, I'm not sure.
Beautiful Boy (2010) -
Initial Expectation: This will be sad.
End Thought: That was sad. But the theme of the film wasn't wallowing in sadness and oh, look how horrible these people's lives are! The main message of the film was about reconnection and growth after tragedy and how different people deal with the pain. The main character of the film isn't the boy who shot up the school. The parents are the central focus and continue to be throughout the entirety of the film. At the start of the film, before the school shooting, the father (Michael Sheen) is already apartment shopping and planning on moving out soon. The mother (Maria Bello) wants the family to go on one more vacation before they commit to separating. The next day, their son kills 22 classmates and himself at his college and the parents are left devastated, grief-stricken, and very confused. They have to learn how to trust one another again because they are the only two people who understand the pain of their situation. They are met with sympathy, anger, and avoidance by people they know. It's a sad film, but not depressing. It's actually kind of encouraging and uplifting, though it doesn't end on a falsely happy note. The truth of it is painful, especially in the wake of the Aurora shootings, but it gives the audience new perspective on situations like this and new understanding of different people's pain in such situations.
Lawless (2012) -
Initial Expectation: Well, I had already seen this film at Cannes in May, so I knew how great it was...
End Thoughts: ...but seeing it a second time made me love it even more. Tom Hardy is a beast. The man can pretty much do anything. This doesn't sound like a very professional review and it isn't. I originally reviewed the film critically and analytically a couple months ago when I first saw it at the festival. This time I was able to enjoy the film more fully (without loud French people talking around me) and I was able to understand it better. Shia LaBeouf regained my respect with this performance (he lost it with those awful Transformers movies...). In fact, the whole cast fits together nicely and is well-casted. It is a pretty violent film, more violent than I remember it being, but I don't really get offended by that kind of violence, so it didn't bother me. The film has elements of Tarantino and the Coen brothers in it, but John Hillcoat gives it his own flavor as well. It is both realistic and fantastical at the same time. I can't wait to buy it on Blu-ray.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Before I Begin...
I tried it. And I didn't hate it. I didn't love it either. It was an unusual and unique experience. Both eye-opening and mind-limiting. Freeing and constricting all at once. I was seeing things I had never seen before, but I was being told how and what to think about them.
What is it, you ask?
Film school.
For my freshman year of college, I was accepted to the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. After being an avid movie fan all of my life, this seemed like the natural next step. And maybe it was. I only attended USC for one year, but I learned more in that one year than I ever thought I would. I grew in so many ways as I took my first shaky steps into the big, grown-up world. The film school at USC is as impressive as you would imagine it to be. Big, stone buildings with courtyards and fountains. Movie props and costumes fill the lobby. Signed movie posters adorn the walls. You know when you step in that other movie greats have passed through these same doors. Heck, Steven Spielberg financed one of the buildings. My first day of Intro to Film, I felt like anything was possibly. And then reality set in.
Film school doesn't teach you all about film. Film school teaches you what your PROFESSORS think about film. Their personal theories and opinions are reflected in every lecture and you're tested on their opinions, not yours. I thought I was going to this place to develop my own thoughts on film, Instead, I was just training to think exactly like my professors did. And not only that - I was being groomed to enter the crazy, corporate world of big budget, studio movies and that terrified me. That was NOT what I wanted to do. I love STORIES, not $$$.
It was hard to realize that USC wasn't the place for me after dreaming about it for so many years. Now I'm at UGA and I'm not even a film major anymore. This isn't because I don't love film. In fact, I probably love it more nowadays than ever. I truly believe if I had stayed at USC, I would have fallen out of love with film and just stayed in the business to rise up the ladder and become a studio head. Leaving film school was the best thing I could have done to preserve my love and interest in movies.
I have no idea where I'll end up for grad school (or if I'll even go). There's a part of me that really wants to go to NYU for grad school to study cinematic arts, but I'm still hesitant because it might be just like my first experience with film school. Maybe I'll end up studying human rights or non-profit management. My Sociology major now is certainly preparing me for that. Who knows.
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