[Nodrog]

I've been dragged to the cinema a lot recently so heres some short reviews of a few films I've seen over the last few weeks, complete with semi-ironic marks out of 10!


No Country For Old Men (Coen Brothers)

This belongs in the 'generic action film trying to lift itself above the crowd by bolting on some philosophical themes' box with Children of Men/Bladerunner/etc. A PSYCHOTIC assassin CHASES the protagonist around the country, SHOOTING him with GUNS to try and recover his MONEY, and sometimes he rolls dice before killing people which is a pretty insightful commentary on free will imo. Nothing at all worth watching happens in this film, nor is there any real thematic content or attempt at a message; its just 90 minutes of bog-standard chase-film followd by a nihilistic ending and a long speech to tie things together. It's every bit as shallow as the Big Lebowski only without the jokes and one-liners, and its much less fun than other straightforward action films with less pretensions to art so I guess that makes it the worst of both worlds.

3/10



The Piano Teacher (Michael Haneke)

I loved Haneke's Funny Games so much that I was scared to watch anything else by him because I knew it wouldnt live up to my expectations. This is a very different kind of film; its a character study of a sexually/emotionally repressed middle class music teacher who tries to fall in love with one of her students. Haneke's directing is wonderful and its amazing how he manages to communicate so much without really showing anything - I love the sense of total detachment that he's able to create in scenes which should be emotionally charged, and it allows him to treat fairly conventionalised topics in a thought-provoking manner which doesnt fall into emotionalism or cliche. However the underlying plot in this film is pretty dull and its not very clear what its meant to mean, or how any of the leading character's traits generalise beyond her into wider themes (I originally thought it was meant to be some critique of middle class lifestyle and the dichotomy between the spiritual experiences which people claim to get from art and their mundane lifestyles, but its far too specific for that. The lead actor says she thought the film was primarilly about the difference between love and seduction but this is pretty weak. Its just a character study of a fairly non-interesting person really).

I suppose this is the best that can be done when it comes to the film adaption of a shitty novel, but I think its still ultimately a film about a shitty novel.

6/10



Sweeney Todd (Tim Burton)

A musical where none of the leading characters can sing is an interesting concept. Its not really hard to see why it happened though; a big budget musical is risky for a major studio, so having a lot of recognisable stars was presumably considered vital for marketing purposes, regardless of how ill-suited they were for parts which involved singing. But there's a sense in which it works; professional-quality singers would have seemed a bit out of place in the impressively dark and gloomy atmosphere which Burton creates, and it probably does fit in better with the general aesthetic.

I didnt want to like ST because its based around several of the main things which are wrong with modern Hollywood - overreliance on big name actors, gratuitious use of cleavage/sex to sell films, plots which consist of trite love stories and reenforce stupid ideas about romance, lack of real meaning/content, and so on. But I really enjoyed it despite that - I went to see it with a girl who's obsessed with musicals and she kept telling me afterwards that it wasnt as good as the film adaptions of West Side Story/Hairspray etc which I totally disagree with; musicals like those tend to be ultra camp and semi-ironic, focusing around trite feel-good themes (racism iz bad) that are impossible to take seriously. Sweeney Todd manages to be a proper film which just happens to contain singing, and that makes it better than any other musical I've watched (admittedly, not many).

6.5/10



The Ketchup Effect (Teresa Fabik)

Highschool teen movie :o

Except its not really; its about the effects of bullying in general, and the atmosphere of conformity it creates for everyone involved, not just those being bullied. This is one of the few films about high school i've seen that has been made by someone who actually understands/remembers what highschool is like - theres none of the idealised/cliche/sentimental portrayals that you get in Hollywood high-school films, and it captures the feelings of confusion and awkwardness well without appealing to the standard stereotypes of this genre (at least until the last 15 minutes or so, where sentimentality starts to take over).

6.5/10



I Am Legend (?)

One of the most boring films I've ever watched, jesus christ this is awful.

2/10



The Bow (Kim Ki-Duk)

Kim Ki-Duk is my latest obsession and I like most of what I've seen by him. This film is beautiful; its about a girl who was kidnapped as a baby and raised on a boat by an old man who wants to marry her when she turns 17. Aside from the paedo-issue, theres a lot of interesting things going on in this film regarding the growing role of intrusive technology, and the pros and cons of a secluded upbringing which escapes the mediocrity of modern city life, and so on. The cinematography is wonderful and the film has such a strongly sensuous quality which makes it almost dreamlike. The lead actress is also one of the most beautiful girls ever, which is pretty cool I guess (shes 22 though).

7/10