Review LXVIII - Chasing Amy

Review LXVIII
Chasing Amy (1997)

While discussing the films Clerks II (which I totally reviewed already) and Dogma with my boyfriend, he asked me if I had ever seen Chasing Amy from the same director, Kevin Smith. I had not, so I quickly got to seeing that one given that he enjoyed refusing to tell me the explicit sexual dialogue in the film. Curiousity persists, my friends!

The film opens with Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) raging at a man at a comic convention who has declaired him a measly "tracer", instead of the inker/embellisher he is for the comic "Bluntman and Chronic". We then meet Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck, the artist of the comic, who is more relaxed and easy-going than his best friend and partner. While talking to fellow comic book artist, Hooper X (Dwight Ewell), Holden and Banky meet the lovely Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), who is also a comic book artist (getting redundant, isn't it?). Holden quickly falls for her and believes she is as well until he discovers she is a lesbian.

The sexual dialogue in this one is frequent, but man, it is completely accurate. I have argued the "do lesbians actually have sex?" argument with people before. I've also discussed other sexual topics brought up in the film. For that reason alone, I was able to relate. But that is something Kevin Smith really seems to hit on the head - his dialogue usually flows in a direction that either you have experienced or in a way that seems very real. Chasing Amy is no exception. I swear, if you're, minimum, in your teens, I'm sure you'll relate to the dialogue, even if you believe in sexual abstinence.

While the film has impeccable dialogue, the characters are not necessarily the most memorable. Jason Lee is pretty snazzy with that beard so I find it hard to forget him, but his character is not super developed. He's involved in interesting dialogue, but I didn't find him that present in the film. He's established as part of the duo, but when the whole mess with Alyssa comes up, he comes in maybe twice. The viewer is left to imagine that he is upset during the whole ordeal instead of actually being shown it. Not to mention that when we do see him, he doesn't seem that angry with everything. Holden was a "meh" character, in my opinion. He was a typical middle-middle guy who gets the girls. Otherwise, I can't really say much about him. Hooper X suffers the same thing as Banky. He's there, but not super there. I find he was more present than Banky and more developed, but he was still under-developed. Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob make an appearance, as usual, but you know how they always are. Alyssa is developed. I liked her character a lot. She's headstrong and interesting, instead of being vapid like so many female characters can be in movies. Yay for one developed character! Nonetheless, I was not disappointed with the film. Kevin Smith has always been about his dialogues. If he nails the dialogue, you'll enjoy yourself, even if the characters talking don't feel developed. In this case, he got the dialogue down, in my opinion. As a result, I really enjoyed myself.

I'd give the film seven point nine stars on ten. I really enjoyed it - especially the ending - but the lack of development in most of the characters was a bit bothersome. Definitely worth watching, though, if you like Kevin Smith's films. And if you don't, well, I'd still say go for it because how can you deny yourself dialogue like this?

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Review LXVII - Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

Review LXVII
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1976)

Oh, yes. Oh, yes... We'll be checking out Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salò today. But first, an anecdote! I've known about this film for a little while. I thought the premise seemed interesting - and quite grotesque - but I never got around to watching it. Then my latest boyfriend brought it up in one of our conversations about peculiar films, but, again, it was put on hold given the content. The other day, I went to bring my friend something at his school and he brought up Marquis de Sade, saying he had tried to read his novel "The 120 Days of Sodom". We had an elaborated discussion about the man whose named derived the word "sadism", and so, when I met up with my boyfriend later that day, I told him it was time to watch this film. My god, were we in for a doozy.

The film takes place in the Italian Social Republic, also known as the Republic of Salò. Just to explain quickly, even though the film mentions it briefly, the Italian Social Republic was a puppet state for Nazi Germany from 1943 to 1945. It was a Fascist state led by the infamous Mussolini (though the state relied heavily on German troops to maintain control) and set up in Northern Italy. While the capital of this state was Rome, it centered around Salò. The film starts with four men - the Duke (Paolo Bonacelli), the Bishop (Giorgio Cataldi), the Magistrate (Umberto Paolo Quintavalle), and the President (Aldo Valletti) - sitting around a table agreeing and signing a book of rules/regulations they have appeared to have written. We then cut to these men stopping various men and women in the republic and proceeding to take them away in handcuffs. These men and women soon learn they will be part of an experimentation of sexual fetishes and social degradation, consisting of three circles - the Circle of Maniacs, the Circle of Shit, and the Circle of Blood.

I'd like to say I'm not a prude when it comes to fetishes, but, my god, this takes ones I find a bit more extreme already and goes all the way. I'll go ahead right now and say that if you're squeamish, don't watch this film. Even me, who has visited the deepest corners of the Internet and frequented movie viewings of the utmost gore, covered my eyes watching this one. I'll go into brief detail of each circle. Spoilers, to an extent, but really, unless you watch it, you aren't being spoiled of the viewing. The Circle of Maniacs consists of putting down people socially, emotionally, psychologically... Women and men are forced to pretend to be dogs as they grab food with their mouths and forced to eat nails. The Circle of Shit is pretty self-explanatory. Yep, we get to enjoy coprophagia/philia and urophilia scenes. And no, the kidnapped people in the film are not masochists - one scene consists of a woman eating feces as she cries over the death of her mother. It was beautiful. Finally, the Circle of Blood is also pretty self-explanatory. We start off with a black mass (a Satanic mass of sorts) with the "marriages" of all the four men who organised this to cockmongers who were chosen to help out in this perverse orgy of sorts. We then proceed to see the horrific torture of those individuals who broke the rules established by the leading libertines.

While this doesn't necessarily sound that bad (there is some pretty messed up stuff on the Internet), the reason you cringe is because these four artistocratic men get gratification from these crazy acts of sexual perversion. As some man's tongue gets cut off, you see a man rubbing his pants. A whole group of individuals is forced into eating a huge pile of feces for supper. Some man just trips a woman and proceeds to have anal sex with her. I mean, c'mon, again, I'm willing to be open to certain fetishes, but these are taken to such an extreme (except for coprophilia - that one I refuse to accept to any extent) that you're baffled anyone could find this sexually arousing. But I suppose that is one point of the film (and perhaps the book) - losing control on your animalistic nature can be a very, very scary thing. Sex, of course, being this animalistic instict that humans can't seem to control sometimes (Freudian logic, guys?). Another view is, of course, political corruption and abuse of power. We have these men of higher class and power destroying the lives of the middle-class youngsters. The regulations are chosen by only those four men. The film can also represent the degradation and the fall of Fascist Italy. There were also many random interludes of monologues from the Duke and the others, but I had trouble following them given the extreme imagery I was being subjected to. Maybe I'll look into what they said, but, for now, I'm happy with my little comprehension of the movie.

It's hard to rate this one given the content. It wasn't a bad film, but jeez, a shocker. It really went far with its themes, but it... did it well? If you're looking for something really off-the-wall and extreme, check this one out, but again, if you get offended, don't say I didn't warn you. I'm definitely going to check out the book despite the warnings I've gotten from everyone. Happy viewing, guys!

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Review LXVI - Zombi Holocaust

Review LXVI
Zombi Holocaust (1980)

This film has a little anecdote to it. Well, even more so than usual. Anyway, my mother always mentioned a film she thought absolutely disgusting whenever I brought up horror films (my mom is not into horror films). She told me she was over at a friend's house with my father, and one of the friends had rented this film called Doctor Butcher, M.D., or Zombi(e) Holocaust, or Zombie 3 (low budget B-movie horror flicks always have a ton of various titles). She told me she found the bodies grotesque and the cannibalism, horrifying. She's told me about this film for years, but I'd always forget about it shortly after she'd share her experience. Not this time, muahaha! I decided to check out the film directed by "Frank Martin", or Marino Girolami as he is really known, and starring a bunch of actors and actresses who never got beyond the zombie genre and weird masochism-sadism porno films (no link for your protection).

The film opens up with a man sneaking into a morgue with a briefcase. He stops at a cadaver and lifts off the cover, revealing a middle-aged man. He places the briefcase on a table, opens it, and - big shocker - takes out a lengthy knife. He proceeds to cut off the left hand of the victim as if the man did not have any bones. He examines the hand and places it into the briefcase. The next day, a doctor and a nurse explain that someone has been stealing extremities from various corpses. They decide to not contact the police, but it proves to not be a problem as they soon find the culprit - a South Asian worker! He jumps out a window (that escalated quickly!) and, before dying, utters the terrible word "Kito". A gang of individuals - with two awesomely beautiful women - head to the Mollucas Islands in search of Kito, but soon run into a gang of flesh-eating cannibals and a doctor with a medical degree in MURDER (cue blood dripping from word) and resurrection.

All I can say is this film was not even close as to how bad my mother made it out to be. I mean, it was made in 1980, so I wasn't expecting anything superb, but I was sorely disappointed with the lack of gore in this movie. I got the super cheesy, "eerie" music, and I got the completely-unnecessary-but-expected nudity and undressing scenes, along with its own super cheesy, porno-style theme (it was the same one both times). I even got the awkward racist theme of "natives are all cannibals"! What this film did not have, though, was full-on crazy gore scenes. I can recall two pretty gorey scenes: one, where a guy's stomach is cut open and his entrails are eaten by natives; two, a girl's skull is cut open while she is alive. That first gore scene was lame because the natives ate chunky bits of his entrails and not his intestines, which were clearly pouring out of him. The second scene? It was ruined by the fact that the doctor removed the girl's vocal chords before proceeding with the operation. While I really hate listening to girls crying and screaming all the time in horror films (yeah, yeah, maybe it's symbolic of how women's cries are ignored in society, but screw that chick at the end of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), you took out the defining element to revealing how painful the operation was! My guess is the girl couldn't act and also couldn't stand listening to screaming girls, so he decided to just add this bit in to save the viewer. Regardless, it was a bad move on their part. And again, that makes two super gorey scenes, and they weren't even that bad. If your film has a title containing "zombie", and you have cannibals, not zombies, AND you barely have any gore scenes, you really have a problem. At least I could make fun of the acting, which was atrocious, as well as the miserable dialogue. Guys, guys, I'll ruin the first scene because it just defines the film:

Doctor (not Dr. Butcher, just some regular doctor): Okay, it's time for anatomy class. Today we will examine the digestive system.
He lifts cover off of corpse sexy nurse brought in revealing a corpse with, gasp, no hand! The nurse and doctor look at each other quickly, but the doctor coughs and continues with the lesson.
Doctor: As I was saying, we will look at the digestive system.
The doctor proceeds to sound scientific and say duodenum in a way I never heard before.
Random medical student, male, turning to female peer: I bet you took the hand.
Female student: Why would you say that?
Male student: Didn't you say you wanted a hand to help you study?
The group erupts into laughter. The doctor proceeds to kick them all out for the bad joke - I mean, because they aren't taking the class seriously.

I don't think I need to even give this one a rating. That above scene illustrates the number of stars it deserves. Next movie!

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Review LXV - Leaving Las Vegas

Review LXV
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)

I've always defended Nicolas Cage when given the chance. Sure, he's been in terrible films, but those films always had a silver lining, and it was that they starred Nicolas Cage. Still, there are many good actors who have appeared in bad films, and I can definitely say that Nicolas Cage has played his part well in a number of films, one being Lord of War and another, where he actually won an Oscar for his performance, called Leaving Las Vegas. People don't seem to ever believe this, so I decided to check the film out; that way, I could actually give an opinion on his performance. The film was directed by Mike Figgis and stars Elisabeth Shue, who was nominated for an Oscar because of this film.

Ben Sanderson (Cage) is an alcoholic. His constant inebriated state has cost him his family - including his wife and son - his friends, and his job. As a result, he decides to literally give up his life in Los Angeles and move to Las Vegas where he will spend the rest of his days drinking. In a drunken state while driving, he nearly runs over Sera (Shue), a prostitute under the wing of an abusive Latvian pimp (Julian Sands). While their first meeting is rather hostile, the two eventually form a relationship. However, Sera is not allowed to ask Ben to lay off the booze, and Ben is not allowed to oppose Sera's choice of work. The awry relationship becomes even more complex when Sera finds herself falling in love with the dead man.

There isn't that much to say about this one as a whole. I can't say I thought the film was particularly filmed super well. There are a lot of slow-motion scenes which I found unnecessary, and it, overall, has a very nineties' feel. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it dates the film a bit. Regardless, though, I really enjoyed this one. The characters, or rather, Sera and Ben, are superb. I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes with both characters, but also those where they were by themselves. They were interesting and well-developed, and even if the plot could sometimes be a tad clichéd, I bought into it. Of course, the performances from both Elisabeth Shue and Nicolas Cage made the characters even better. I thought the chemistry between both of them was perfect, and I was cringing and squealing (yeah...) at every opportunity. Nicolas Cage deserved his Oscar - he acted really well. He took the performance to heart, and man, he did it so well. Elisabeth Shue? I'm sorry you didn't win an Oscar because you were great, too. I cared for Sera and I understood her. That can only be done when great acting is involved. All in all, while the film didn't necessarily contain the best cinematography and the plot could be very Hollywood-ish at times, the characters and acting were phenomenal.

I'd give the film eight stars. It is certainly worth a watch, and not even to just prove that Nicolar Cage can act. No, this film is worth a watch for its real-but-surreal characters. Plus you get Sting singing, so what more could you ask for?

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Reviex LXIV - The Third Man

Review LXIV
The Third Man (1949)

I actually came across this film while researching another film. I'm sure I've come across it before, but I spend much more time researching films than I do actually watching them, so I'll remember a movie poster or a plot, but not much else. Anyway, as soon as I saw this starred Orson Welles, I was intrigued. Joseph Cotten, who worked with Orson Welles quite a number of times, Alida Valli, and Trevor Howard also play a part in the cast of Carol Reed's The Third Man.

Holly Martins (Cotten), an American novelette writer, is excited to take the job his friend, Harry Lime (Welles), has offered him in Vienna. However, he discovers, as he reaches Lime's doorstep, that Lime was hit by a car, attended to by his two friends and, later, a doctor, and died shortly afterward. He attends the funeral and meets two British Army police officers, one of them being the crass Major Calloway (Howard). Major Calloway encourages Martins to depart from Vienna as soon as possible, but he is driven to the exact opposite when the other police officer, Sergeant Paine (Bernard Lee), speaks of his writing, resulting in Martins giving a lecture on "contemporary novels". While awaiting the lecture, Martins speaks to Lime's land owner and discovers that another man, aside from Lime's two friends, carried his friend across the street. This leads to Martins questioning whether the incident was purely accidental.

Praises to this film - oh, many praises. First off, I'll talk about the cinematography. My friend had never seen this one but said he had wanted to watch it as it looked "purdy". Guys, it is totally that. Do you ever tear up when you see black-and-white, highly contrasted photographs? Do you ever fall to your knees when you see a beautifully captured film? ... Maybe that's slightly exaggerated, but, regardless, this film is wonderfully filmed. The scenes are brilliantly shot - capturing every individual well - and I love the play with light. The scenes with the running of shadows and all were superb. I know people who are turned off by a film as soon as they see it is in black and white. It's a great shame because they miss great films, and this is one. It's film-noir, so we get the chiaroscuro to the boot. It's grand, real grand.

Now, even though a film can be pretty, it'll be hard to sit through if it's boring - which some of you may believe is the case with black-and-white films. Not with this one. I was pleasantly surprised when I let out a giggle when Martins finds out Lime is dead. While The Third Man is not a straight-up comedy in the least, it has catchy and quirky little lines and scenes (Major Calloway and Martins, please, you guys are fantastic together!). The music might have helped with that, but hey. When it doesn't have funny bits, it is still captive. The dialogue and story are interesting. Even when there were full on German bits with no subtitles (Ich spreche kein Deutsch, sniffle), I was still able to follow what was going on. Still, I'd suggest subtitles for those parts because I would have liked to follow them... Either way, the plot was engaging and not completely stock, and the discussions between characters was wonderful. It gets what needs to be done in 105 minutes, and then some.

Finally, and this will be short, the acting. Well, I suppose you can already guess what I'm going to say - it was great. Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli, Trevor Howard, and Orson Welles, as well as all the numerous side actors, all did a grand job at portraying their characters. I bought into the story because of these guys, and they were all cast appropriately.

I'd give the film eight point five stars on ten. I really, really enjoyed myself. This is a film to watch on a Saturday evening, when you don't feel like watching a complex film, but are still engaged enough to laugh at the characters and gawk at the fine, very fine, cinematography.

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