To celebrate the release of The Great Directors prints, we’ve arranged a giveaway of x5 posters to the winner.
To enter simply reblog this post. You can live anywhere from Canada to Cambodia, and be anywhere from 8 months to 800 to win. On March 31, 2012, five people will be randomly chosen for an art print of their choosing at any size or medium they desire.
Smell that? You smell that? Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. It smelled like victory.
Someday this war’s gonna end…
It’s a skill in progress…
After re-reading my old blog posts, I see the horrid writer that I am.
Improving my writing, style and articulating ideas is amongst the few, ever-dwindling, reasons for making this blog. I will not correct the “imperfections” on my previous posts, unless if it was in the scope of typos or bad formatting. I hope doing so will give me an accurate representation is how I’ve progressed. I’m also morbidly lazy.
Also, I saw the Tree of Life…my brain is crying!
Five Favorite Films of 2011
This post is of my personal opinion - the only one I obsess over.
Honourable Mentions: The Tree of Life, Another Earth, The Future, Take Shelter, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Turin Horse, Hugo, Submarine, Moneyball, 50/50
None of these are in particular order…
The Skin I Live In
It was an unusual movie, which only helped it in my eyes. Unusual and original…boldy original. Very few filmmakers come to mind with the aesthetically unique, but simple, style of filmmaking - Mr. Almodovar is one of them. A film that stylishly brings up new pathways in how we view gender roles, and fuels the cinematic motif of “natural vs. synthetic”, “real vs. fake”, “human vs. androids”. There’s also a prominent romantic element to the film. But not “romance” as the majority of films portray it. Finding the few exceptions like Vertigo, this portrayal of ‘love’ isn’t as fueled by lust or compassion, but by yearning, remorse and possibly a series of mental disorders. Stockholm syndrome comes to mind…
A Separation
You won’t be considered a serious film critic if this isn’t in your ‘top five of the year’. It’s the quintessential example of “less is more”. Shot on a budget and under the restrictive Islamic film board of Iran, A Separation speaks volumes of Iranian political, religious and social commentary by little acts of dialogue, setting and character. All incorporated in an engrossing drama, as characters become more detached to one another amongst a legal-case which questions the morality and personalities of all characters. It works on several levels; A Separation between the divorcing couple, from father to daughter, ailing father to son; class to class, household to household; assumptions from reality, truth from lies. A Separation won the Golden Globe for best foreign film, and will likely be winning the Oscar this Sunday.
Drive
You won’t be considered an entry-level film critic goer if this isn’t in your ‘top five of the year’. Since the year is over, and the initial criticisms of Drive have begun to lose credibility, as did the negative comments of other films like Pulp Fiction and Blue Velvet. What’s been said about style of Nicholas Refn Winding’s direction has been said, the performance by Ryan Gosling, said, and the rollarcoaster ride known as the elevator, gasped. More about style than substance has been spoken about, and in harsh reality, Drive is modelled like that, but the solidness and uniqueness of the film help overcome that mountain. I plan on wearing a Drive jacket on Halloween, and I plan on looking ‘dorky as fuck’ as well. Drive was nominated for nothing of importance during the Oscars. But in all due respect, Oscar has turned 84 this year, hence don’t concern yourself when Drive doesn’t get a nomination; that’s just how old people are. That will be one funeral where I plan on wearing a white suit to.
Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen; fun; funny; people I learned about in high school literature. Cool, cool, cool.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
It might have become obvious from the last paragraph that I’ve lost quite alot of ‘fucks’. I want to watch “Community” right now. But, I really liked Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, so I’ll wait on that.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a film that your closest pretentious film-avid will admit to liking. I liked it. I loved it, matter of fact. As it moves, slowly, you will be thrown several things at once, some mundane and seemingly irrelevant, but it keeps you engaged. Visually and psychologically, its a puzzle that doesn’t discriminate particular characters as being a “ploy” or “lea suspectable st” - this isn’t an episode of Scooby Doo. It’s visually gorgeous, a powerhouse of actors, all infront of you and Smiley. After watching it, and reading reviews and analyses, and rewatching it, and writing my own analysis, I’ve concluded Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is amongst the best thrillers in the last 11 years.
The Grey - 9.6/10
The Grey, after first viewing, struck me as a masterful piece of filmmaking. The aesthetics, story and ultimate themes all connect to this central philosophy - the godlessness, cruel, wintry of nature and God. Yes, I did call God godless. Deal with it. Another thing that I loved in this film was the ending - spoiler alerts - the screen cuts to black as Liam Neeson preps to fight the ebony-black alpha male. Films don’t understand when an ambiguous ending is necessary, because it never is. The ending was not ambiguous. Although, even with the last shot after the credits, it doesn’t matter who wins. As constantly pushed by the protagonist, the line “Live or die on this day” suggests that struggles concerning life-or-death outcomes are all within the day. Another one will come, and another afterwards. The entire film is one deadly struggle for life after another, until it finally boils to the proverbial “boss fight”. If he dies, he dies. If he lives, he’ll die some other time - the next struggle if you will. This film doesn’t end when the story goes from “climax” to “denouement”, it keeps recycling itself. Contrary to typical endings, this film doesn’t end on the note of failure or success, but on “logical exhaustion”. There is nothing more that can happen which is relevant in understanding the film’s inner message, “life’s a bitch, and then you die”. But even with that defeatist, depressing message, the film plays devil’s advocate with itself. Looking through the wallets and photos of the fallen, and in flashbacks to his ailing wife, the protagonist, a once suicidal man, who could have taken the same path as another survivor, overcomes that defeatist mentality. He will fight, and continue. True to his other flashback, of him as a child, reading a poem on his father’s wall:
Once more into the fray
Into the last good fight I’ll ever know
Live and die on this day
Live and die on this day
Did You Know: While shooting “The African Queen” in the Congo, the entire cast became ill with dysentery, except Humphrey Bogart, who had refused water for whiskey.
Martin Scorsese : In Raging Bull, I guess the boxing scenes have a lot to do with the action sequences in my mind. All this editing and all this camera movement that I’d been exposed to for the past 25 years or 30 years came into play in those sequences, and Hitchcock had a lot to do with it, there’s no doubt, particularly in designing the scene where Sugar Ray Robinson, in the third bout that they have, when La Motta’s on the ropes, looks up at him, and Sugar Ray comes in for the kill. And there’s a kind of edited sequence of punishment that this character’s taking. I based it on, shot by shot, the shower scene of Psycho. And so I designed it correspondingly, in a way. The glove corresponds to a knife. And so, we shot it that way.
