Review LXXVII - Harold and Maude

Review LXXVII
Harold and Maude (1971)

I always feel like I should stay away from older films that are popular because I'm sure everyone has already said all that needs to be said about the film. But I have to realise that newer generations (and even older generations) may have heard of these films but never taken the time to sit down and watch them. Thus, even though everyone has said what they wanted about the film, the folks that haven't seen the film might sit down and read, well, this, and thus decide to pick it up. Or maybe you'd like to read what I have to say. Or, the most likely scenario, I'm just writing for my own enjoyment. As a result, I'm here to review Hal Ashby's Harold and Maude starring Ruth Gordon (who played the catty neighbour in Rosemary's Baby! What! ... I didn't like that film, by the way), Bud Cort (he plays an important character in Dogma, but doesn't speak. Still, cool!), and Vivian Pickles (! ... I have nothing to say about this woman.).

The film begins with a death... Nearly. A young man steps up on a chair and proceeds to hang himself. His mother (Pickles) walks into the room and promptly ignores her son, only to call out on his ricidulousness and instructing him how to behave. Meet Harold (Cort), our protagonist for the film! Besides being rich, Harold is obsessively morbid, stagging suicides frequently, with a score of approximately fifteen times (it's a rough estimate) thus far, attending funerals for individuals he does not know, and harvesting a knowledge of death-related paraphernalia. He encounters an older woman, Maude (Gordon), at one of the funerals he attends, and the two grow very close. While his mother tries to close him in even further, he finally begins to feel freedom with his unlikely partner.

The black comedy did not do well initially, but it eventually developed a cult following and is now considered a classic (or so Wikipedia tells me, hehe). Does it deserve such a status? Heck yes! I enjoyed the characters' personalities (and Bud Cort's voice - it was beautiful) and I enjoyed the relationship they held. I mean, while they seem contrasting, I never really got the sense they were completely contrasting. Harold might have seemed secluded and seemingly prefer his own company, but as soon as he meets Maude, he opens up. Instead, I really got the feeling he was finally able to blossom once he met the woman he wanted in his life. She finally accepted him for who he was and provided unconditional love and so he was able to grow. Anyway, yes, I liked the characters themselves. Harold was interesting - quirky, but cute. Maude was also interesting - insane, but wonderful. But we actually get a story behind their lives, so their actions all seem so justified at the end. Plus, and this is a slight spoiler I suppose so avoid the rest of the paragraph, we can also take their behaviours as a result of the wars they endured - Maude having endured World War II, a war that brought about a baby boom and a will to live, and Harold having endured the Vietnamese War, a meaningless war. The writer and director of this film knew what they were thinking!

The aesthetics of the film were great, too. There were certain scenes that were really eye-capturing, and the way some scenes were shot were fabulous. Plus the sensualism in that statue scene - oh my. I really don't want to say anything to spoil the film, but check the way the characters are positioned in some scenes - it provides a huge foreshadow for the film. Isn't it nice when the director incorporates such elements into the film? Very nice indeed. Plus that broken-fourth-wall moment? Fabulous. I seem to really like these moments in cinema - probably because they're rarely executed. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack for the film. It's principally Cat Stevens, but man, I thoroughly enjoyed some songs.

I have class tomorrow, so I'll cut the review here. It is well executed and an unconventional romance. It took me a little while to buy into the film, but when I did, I really enjoyed it. If you enjoy black comedies, it's definitely worth a shot. If you're looking for a slightly screwy film, definitely check it out. Harold and Maude shouldn't disappoint.

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Review LXXVI - Funny Games

Review LXXVI
Funny Games (1997)

I'm sorry I vanished for so long, guys. I don't have an excuse given that I have been watching films, but I'm sure you all understand the feeling of not being in the mood to sit down and write something lengthy. However, now that I have a catchy song to listen to on loop (I'd link, but really, it's pretty odd - let's just say it's about shoes), I'm ready to sit down and write! I'm picking out a film I watched quite a while back, but it might be fun to review it. It's a film from Michael Haneke and stars Susanne Lothar, the wonderful Ulrich Mühe, Arno Frisch, Frank Giering, and Stefan Clapczynski. There was a frame-by-frame remake, but I stuck with the original. The film? Funny Games.

The film starts off with some blaring Naked City (whose genre, among many things, is noise) as we see a happy family consisting of Georg (Mühe), Anna (Lothar), and Georgie (Clapczynski) driving to a cottage near a lake in Austria. They meet two young men - Paul (Arno Frisch) and Peter (Frank Giering) - who initially seem friendly, but quickly overstay their welcome. Now the family is trapped in a game they can't escape.

Funny Games is an interesting piece. I didn't look into the film very much before watching it, so when my boyfriend and I watched it, he was often yelling out all the possible weapons the family could have used to attack and kill Paul and Peter. Of course, being the ignorant (and naive) one, I just kept thinking that they were in shock and I assumed that eventually everything would work out. Well, I can't talk about the ending because that would be giving away everything, but I can talk about the meaning of the film. Violence is common in cinema, or, at the very least, in Hollywood, and Michael Haneke was ready to portray this uber-violent nature in his film Funny Games. In this case we'll narrow it to suspense/horror films. This movie goes out of its way to break all the stock ideas that are recycled in every one of these films. I'll only talk about one so as not to ruin the film completely, but yeah, be warned, it is a spoiler. For example, horror films will keep one protagonist we liked (though I despised the one survivor in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Completely useless), but this film completely throws that out of the window. I won't say in what way, but you can already guess.

The primary antagonist, Paul, also constantly breaks the fourth wall and challenges the audience. I'd say the first moment that happens was the biggest up for me in the film. The way it was executed was just so well done, and so were the rest of them. He challenges you, asking if you bet the family will survive to the end. It's different, and I thought it was pretty cool. But as for the film itself, it's just a one-sided battle the whole way through, so it gets a bit tiresome. I mean, you're rooting for the family, but when all you get is them crying and being beaten down, the film starts to get long. You get these moments when you think maybe things will change, but no, it's static the whole way through. Those moments are not enough to really pick up the film, but some of them - including the one with Anna and the gun - were pretty darn cool. But Funny Games is basically pointing the camera at you and asking if you're falling into the typical rituals of horror/suspense films, and I liked that. I'm not hating on horror and suspense films (even though I can't say I like horror films since they all mostly rely on jump scares and not true horror like Blacula) because they follow a simple formula and it works to entertain the viewer, but I think it's always good to be aware of where a film will place you at times. Are you rooting for all the characters to die because they're completely incompetent? Are you hoping that one screaming female "protagonist" will run out of the building and survive? It's a refreshing change to have a film portraying all this violence and making you question it at the same time.

Can I recommend the film? Well, Arno Frisch and Ulrich Mühe are both beautiful, so, to an extent, yes. As a casual watch, it's not the best film. However, if you're looking for something a bit more deep and you're looking to release your anger on some characters, give it a watch. It's more leaning toward being an okay film than a really good film, but it'll get you talking.

A final remark - I never saw the remake (though it is supposedly the same film), but I don't feel any interest to watch it. The original is in German, so I'm sticking to it.

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Review LXXV - Dawn of the Dead

Review LXXV
Dawn of the Dead (1978)

I'm sorry I vanished for so long. It's not even like I had an excuse as this semester has been ridiculously quiet. I've also been watching films, but, well, we'll see if I get around to those. Anyway, I'm continuing with another zombie film, this time a classic from George A. Romero, the original Dawn of the Dead. I felt like I should be reviewing more Christmas-ish films, but then I realised that, given this is the season of commercialism and the film deals with such subject matter, I guess I'm not completely off with reviewing with Dawn of the Dead. The film stars David Emge, Ken Foree, Scott J. Reiniger, Gaylen Ross, and the ever-wonderful Tom Savini (I don't care if he's super minor in the movie - he's so beast!). We got this, man! We got this by the ass!

The United States is in a mass panic with the growing epidemic of the dead returning to life with one goal in mind: eating human flesh. Francine, a television executive for a news station, tries to control her crew, but everyone has gone mad, with society having gone to ruins due to the plague. With no hope of survival in this part of the country, Francine and Stephen, her lover and traffic reporter, decide to steal a traffic helicopter in hopes of finding better lands. Meanwhile, a S.W.A.T. team raids an apartment building housing mostly immigrants, only to find that many rooms are filled with flesh-eating monsters. Roger, a S.W.A.T. member, meets another S.W.A.T. team associate, Peter, and they bond while destroying monsters. Roger explains that his friend Stephen has offered him an escape, inviting Peter to tag along. That night, the four escape in the helicopter and eventually seek refuge in a mall. This place has survival kits and any merchandise the group might need; however, this sanctuary might not be all it's cracked up to be...

I watched Night of the Living Dead the other day as I decided I had been missing out on that bit of culture for too long. Now, while I will compliment it on its strong black male character (great job, Duane Jones!) and its innovation for being the first zombie film of its kind, I found the film a bit slow. Again, I know it was going into the psychological horror of the individuals and it did spawn the zombie-horro sub-genre, so I can't do anything less than bow to it, but I think I had hyped myself up a bit too much for it. It was gory for the time (just as Psycho was gory as well), and I thought the gore was pretty well done, but the plot itself was not fully there. Maybe it's because the film was short, but either way, while it did have great bits, I think some parts could have been shortened or modified to be a bit more interesting. Dawn of the Dead? This one had everything I wanted. Let's take a look, shall we?

The plot really captures the zombie metaphor. The group stay in a mall where we often seen them growing ecstatic at taking commercial goods they probably wouldn't have been able to afford before, "stealing" money from a bank, and playing about like children. The zombies, of course, walk about the mall, staying somewhere they see as familiar to them. Not to mention the masculinity aspect this film has. Thankfully, Francine stands up for herself. If she would have gone into shock like Barbra (Judith O'Dea) did in Night of the Living Dead, I would have been a bit disappointed. The premise of the film was interesting, and the fact that they take refuge in a mall really made it interesting. There was so much the whole crew of the film could do with it, and they do. I suppose the end where the biker-survival gang comes in might be a bit rushed for some, but I enjoyed it and glad they included it in the film.

The gore is, well, hilarious. The blood is not dark and realistic - it's hyper-red, especially against the blu-ish white faces of the zombies. The iconic scene of the man's head exploding at the beginning of the film had me cracking up. I thought it was brilliant. The zombies themselves were grand, in my opinion. They were simple, but they worked with a certain campiness. The flesh-ripping, flesh-chewing was iconic to Night of the Living Dead, but in colour and more vividly shot. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Thank you, Tom Savini, for being so awesome.

Dawn of the Dead is worth watching. It may be from 1978, but it really holds up. I have yet to see the remake, but honestly, watch the original - I'm sure it's probably better. It's an inventive zombie film with great characters, interesting lines, and phenomenal gore.

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Review LXXIV - 28 Days Later...

Review LXXIV
28 Days Later... (2002)

I completely missed out on Halloween, guys. I promised my friend I'd help him tackle his feminist course and ended up waking up ten minutes before I had to leave (five hours of sleep is over-powered). The rest of the day consisted of running around doing errands (and cracking jokes about politicians with my friend) before heading to my class which was from 18:00 until 22:00. I got home, completely exhausted, and watched Moon (probably won't review it, so in a nutshell, I guessed the plot early on, but it's still an interesting watch)... And went to bed at three in the morning. Yep, I missed out. Thus, I spent the early afternoon listening to Dave Brubeck Quartet, Foster the People, and Karkwa as I studied, and then proceeded to watch Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later... starring the ever wonderful Cillian Murphy and the great Naomie Harris, as well as Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston.

The film opens with three activists rescuing what they think are innocent primates being experimented on. However, upon opening up a cage - much to the protests of a scientist who says they are infected with "rage" (no, not the French word for rabies) - the primate lunges at one of the activists... Jim (Murphy) wakes up in a hospital in the UK, completely deserted. He quickly finds out what happened when he's attacked by a priest and several church-attendees who are no longer human. He's rescued by two individuals, Mark (Noah Huntley) and Selena (Harris), who inform that a virus spread through contact with blood and saliva has infected all of Britain and potentially the world. Now it is up to these last people standing to survive in a zombie-infected country.

As you know - or don't know - I love zombie films. Horror movies rarely cut it for me (since they're all so lame usually), but I really love the analogy zombies present and the gore that is associated with it. This film, while it doesn't have gore really, is a great take on the zombie series. The zombies in this film are not slow-walking, brain-eating moaners, but, instead, run as a normal person could, throw up blood to infect individuals, and enjoy feasting on the human body as whole. Yum, yum. Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland decided to make the virus just propel the "rage" in individuals to an extreme, which is why they can run and all. They also decided to change the brain-eating bit, I think it was because they thought it was old-fashioned, but I could be wrong. Either way, I thought it was a cool idea. The zombies in this film aren't representing the sheep-driven, zombie-like mob human beings can be, but instead, exaggerate the anger and rage and animalistic nature they possess. Neat, eh? I think the metaphor is befitting, and the film handles it well. It also works well in showing how Jim develops as a character as well, but I'll let you watch the film to get that idea, hehe.

The characters were great. Jim, well, is great. I liked him with his ethics (and lack of) and beautiful eyes... I mean, character disposition. Cillian Murphy, you did a great job! Maybe you were a bit... emotionless at times, but I don't know, I ate up your character. But you know who I want to talk about? Selena. Oh, yes. She's not just there as a love interest, but instead, an interesting, well-developed, fierce, and strong woman lead who isn't afraid to fight fire with fire. Guys, I find it so rare for me to have a female character I legitimately like. Usually they're just there and don't do all that much, but Selena is grand. Her backup story is that she was forced to kill her parents in order to save her brother, only to find he was infected. This helps explain her rage (ah? See? Comparison to the zombies again), but her rage is not so extreme that I turned her down. No, she was human. Her rage and emotional intelligence and sadness show that she is a three-dimensional character. Oh, I loved her. Thank you, Naomie Harries. Please, I just wish there existed more characters like her in horror films, and not just woman-screaming as they run from a slasher. And guess what? This film provides me with another great female character! Hannah (Megan Burns) is also an adolescent who is strong and cunning. She doesn't get as much screentime as Selena, but she's still a great character. Again, a character I really enjoyed. I also like how the director plays on these strong-willed female characters in the mansion, but I don't wish to ruin anything, so I'll be quiet.

At first, I can't say I was really into the whole way the film was shot. When Jim is walking about, the camera shots seemed off to me (that zoom-in into the wall was really meh, I found), but it played out well in the end. I realise they were going for a more realistic feel, and I became more accepting of it as the film went on. I guess I'm just too used to smooth-cut films. The quality of the film also isn't the best (at least the one I watched), but apparently this should be expected. In the end, I can say I liked how it went about and how it was shot. Really authentic, guys.

Sigh, I really enjoyed this film. I'm sorry I didn't watch it earlier. While I wouldn't agree with the cover of the film as being super scary, it was interesting and well-done. It wasn't cheesy and the gore was limited, but I still really enjoyed it. It might not be Halloween anymore, and even be All Saints' Day, but check this film out. It's a really grand zombie film. Happy (belated) Halloween everyone!

Pirate Bay torrent (quality not the best, in my opinion, but anywho)

Review LXXIII - Encounters at the End of the World

Review LXXIII
Encounters at the End of the World (2007)

I got the chance to go to the Yukon, Canada this summer, and I thoroughly enjoyed my experience. I tanned very well given the sun is up for, oh, twenty hours per day, and it was very well, so if you're scared of going because of the cold, go in the summer - you'll be fine. That being said, I still adore the cold. My winters consist of snow, snow, and more snow, and I'd go to the Yukon in the wintertime in a heartbeat. I suppose that's why I took an interest to Werner Herzog's documentary Encounters at the End of the World. It involves a place not many people would ever imagine visiting, nor feel the inclination to go. Meanwhile, I'll be booking a one-way ticket, hehe.

Werner Harzog and Peter Zeitlinger, an Austrian cinematographer, hed to Antarctica in order to find out what is going on one of the most desolate places on the Earth. Along the way, they meet some pretty well-accomplished and interesting individuals, as well as capture extraordinary shots on film.

I went into this film biased, but I'd still like to think my opinion of it holds up. It's a... random documentary. It lacks a certain focus, I suppose you can say, given that it focuses on many different aspects, ranging from culture to neutrinos (love those guys!). However, right off the bat, you're warned that this film will get odd, as you start with Werner Harzog asking why a monkey doesn't just get atop a horse and ride off into the sunset. But I mean, this film is tackling the idea of Antarctica and what is going on there. I mean, while it is desolate, McMurdo Station - a research centre on the continent - houses many particular individuals who each have a story to tell. So, in the end, we're forced to hear many different stories. And I was totally fine with this. I thought it peeked my interest in many different fields of study, and, since I am in my pursuit of education, I really took a great interest in seeing where my education and career could one day take me. It was also kind of settling seeing all these different types of people coming together and studying something that, in the end, is to further understand the Earth and the creatures inhabiting it. As they say in Chinese, we're all 在天下, which literally translates to under the sky. Still, as a human species, we forget that we're connected in some way very often... Alright, I'll stop before I go all philosophical and naive in this post.

The cinematography was grand, as expected. I made sure to download a high-quality of the film, and I did not regret it. The underwater shots were great, and even the way the other scenes were shot were great. I liked the movie-within-a-movie when we get to watch Them on screen. Brilliant, just brilliant.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Again, it's pretty all over the place, but I nonetheless stand by it. It makes you feel almost despondent at the end and not happy-go-lucky, but documentaries are made to make you think, I suppose. Either way, if you're looking for something a bit different, quirky, but still pretty good, check it out.

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Review LXXII - Jagten

Review LXXII
Jagten (2012)

Ahhh, Mads Mikkelsen, you seem to follow me. Or, rather, I really enjoy your films, so if I'm looking for a good film, I'll look to your name. One of those films - which is also Denmark's entry for the Best Foreign Film at this year's Oscars - is Jagten, or The Hunt, as it is known to us English-speaking folks. It is directed by Thomas Vinterberg (who also directed Festen - that film was brutal) and stars, besides Mikkelsen himself, Thomas Bo Larsen and Alexandra Rapaport.

Lucas (Mikkelsen), a divorcé, lives in a small Danish community and works at a kindergarten, where he is very popular with the children. He enjoys hunting with his many friends, including Theo (Larsen), one of his childhood friends. He tries to convince his ex-wife to allow their son to live with him, and his efforts prove fruitful when his son agrees. He also becomes successful relationship-wise when a co-worker, Nadja (Rapaport), takes an interest to him. Lucas' life seems to have finally improved, but a small lie will prove to have a huge impact on his future.

I really, really enjoyed this film, and it wasn't just Mad Mikkelsen. I made sure not to ruin the film for myself, avoiding even finding out what the lie was, but if you've seen Festen, you can already guess Vinterberg will not shy away from the brutal details. Plus every trailer tells you, but I refuse to write it here! The film was original - I have yet to have seen a film that deals with such subject matter in this way. Off the bat, this was great. I'm sure there are other films that are very similar, but this is just from my experience. Even so, even if it's been done before, I doubt it's done this way often. Originality is not necessarily a bonus, but, in this case, it definitely was.

I'll dive straight into the acting. Guys, it was great. I have my bias toward Mikkelsen, but really, I thought this was probably his best acting job I've seen so far. His acting throughout the whole film was completely believable. I hope he continues to make films that test his acting as well as this one did because he can handle it fantastically. Rapaport was great - she spoke English, yay - but her screentime was limited, so I can't go ahead and bow down to it. Nonetheless, when she was there, it was good. Larsen was also great. I really bought into his character, and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance. Annika Wedderkopp was also very good in her role. I always feel better when you have a child who can act well in a film. She definitely did a great job.

I don't have that much else to say on the film, so I'll cut the review short. Honestly, I thought it was well done. I'm hoping it makes it as a nomination for Best Foreign film. I haven't seen the other entries, so I can't be sure, but I'm assuming it'll make it. Definitely check it out if you're looking to watch an interesting film! It's not a happy film, but it's very well done.

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Review LXXI - Gravity

Review LXXI
Gravity (2013)

It takes a lot to get me to go to the movies, especially as of late. Sure, school may be one excuse, but it's primarily because the films that are released on a weekly basis all look awful. When I saw the trailer for Bad Grandpa before seeing The World's End, I nearly walked out of the theatre. Instead, I should have taken it as foreshadowing for the film I was about to watch... But seriously, I'll enjoy a little piece of Hollywood extra-sweet fudge every once in a while. I did enjoy The Last Stand after all, and Con Air (directed by the same guy who directed the Rick Astley "Never Gonna Give You Up" video, Simon West) is one of my top films. Nonetheless, it's hard for me to actually pay to watch these films in theatres, and I'm still nitpicky as schnitzel when it comes to watching these bad films. When I heard that Alfonso Cuarón had directed Gravity, and I heard out-standing reviews for the film, I decided it was time to visit the theatre once again.

Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) are on their final spacewalk for their mission in fixing the Hubble Space Telescope (which will soon enough be replaced by the James Webb Space Telescope! The new telescope will focus on taking in infrared rays with a primary mirror being five times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. The reason, by the way, that these telescopes are set in orbit is because the atmosphere does not allow for all types of electromagnetic waves to enter it. Thank you, Astrophysics! I knew you'd come in handy one day!). However, Mission Control warns that Kessler syndrome (chain reaction of destruction) is playing into effect after debris from a Russian missile have hit an old satellite. The Hubble Space Telescope is hit, and Stone is sent hurtling into space. Kowalski manages to get her back, but it comes to their realisation that they are the lone survivors. They desperately try to communicate with the ground crew in hopes they can hear them, however, they are soon faced with a difficult path in order to try and survive.

I'd just like to thank humankind for leaving junk, not only on the ground, but in space, as well. Earth may one day have rings, but they'll be made of garbage, not destroyed planets/moons because of the Roche limit. ... Now that that is out of the way, I'll just go ahead and compliment the film on its long shots, as expected from Alfonso Cuarón (who directed Children of Men, which I reviewed!). Of course, these long shots were filled with absolutely stunning cinematography. The view of the Earth was outstanding. It's kind of crazy when you think how far we've come in cinema - and space travel. But I digress... The cinematography was great, and I bought into it. My friend really enjoyed how the crew paid attention to detail on the space suits (I don't question his statement), as well. I'm also studying Chinese, so I was excited to recognise the characters for electricity (电) and power (力)! But seriously, it was well-filmed. Aesthetically, this film got it DOWN.

The acting was also great, but this was expected. My friend really enjoyed George Clooney's acting (or, maybe, it was really just his character), and I really enjoyed Sandra Bullock's. But, then again, this is expected. Sandra Bullock is a phenomenal actress, and George Clooney, well, he's good. He plays the manly character well - I'll give him that.

If you're looking to see a good film in theatres, take your chances on this one - it'll be showing up at the Oscars, I'm sure, and it's well done. You won't be wasting your money! I didn't see it in 3D, but it was made for it. If you can't sit through 3D films, don't worry, it's just as grand without the 3D effects.