Change Your Image
konix
Reviews
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
A wonderful movie about the power of love and value of life
(contains spoilers)
Is life worth living even when we know death is around the corner? Does life need to have a transcendental meaning to be meaningful?
The wonderful motion picture "The Fault in our Stars" attempts to answer these timeless questions by focusing on the love story of two terminally ill teenagers.
Teenage love should be filled with the joy and exhilaration of knowing that the best days of your life are ahead of you: never-ending romantic evenings, marriage, parenthood and aging in the comfort and warmth of each other's care. It should not come with a time bomb that says that all of a sudden either you or your lover will die at a few hours notice.
In the case of Hazel and Augustus, madly in love yet hopelessly ill with cancer, the question is: why should they invest in their relationship if they live on borrowed time? Heck, why should they really invest in anything at all? The more they attach to life, the harder it becomes to let go of it.
Augustus is obsessed with leaving a legacy, with being remembered through the annals of history. Hazel isn't able to engage whole-heartedly in any activity and spends each day simply going through the motions. As she puts it at the beginning of the movie, "depression is not a side effect of cancer; it's a side effect of dying".
By finding each other, the two teens discover that love can bring meaning to both of their lives, no matter how short-lived. Augustus understands that he doesn't have to be a Mozart or an Einstein to have a life worth living
that doesn't need make his mark on all humanity to feel fulfilled: his legacy will be treasured by Hazel, by his friends and his family, that's all that matters. On her part, Hazel discovers that love can fill even even the shortest life with meaning and can make every last minute worth living.
The movie is filled with memorable, amazingly touching scenes. Perhaps the one that resonated with me the most is the romantic, five-star dinner in Amsterdam, complete with bottles of champaign and the chef's full selection of delicacies. Hazel and Augustus savored every last bite, every last drop of champagne and every last instant of each other's company. For one night they forgot their existential plight; for one night they were able not to think about what awaits them around the corner, about never being able to fulfill their dreams of being a "normal" young couple. What is so touching is that their tragic circumstances forced them to grow up very quickly, to go through the various phases of their relationship in fast-forward mode. You usually don't have a candlelight dinner at sixteen, in a dark suit/long gown, overflowing with champagne; but then again, you are not supposed to be terminally ill at sixteen either.
The message is inescapable, and I think the analogy with Ann Frank's death – which the movie pointedly makes – is not far fetched: Ann was able to find love and beauty up until the moment she died; Hazel and Augustus had that same strength.
Hopefully, we too can abandon our own delusions of leaving a legacy of some consequence to humanity and focus instead on leaving a tiny – yet infinite – legacy to those that really matter in our life, however few; hopefully we too can learn to appreciate every minute of our life, however inconsequential and ephemeral.
Two quotes come to mind: "for the world you may be nothing, but for someone you are the world" (anonymous); "It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses" (Dag Hammarskjold).
Life Itself (2014)
Should have focused more on his work, but great insight into his genius anyway
I grew up with Roger Ebert's movie reviews. I first read one of his pieces in high school and have been hooked ever since. I would usually consult him before deciding to watch a particular movie, especially if the IMDb rating was not very high: his judgment would be the tie break that would convince me – or not – to invest those 2-3 hours in a movie. Afterwards, I would tuck into bed and slowly and solemnly read his opinion, often forcing my wife to listen on.
What was so special about his reviews? What set him apart from the plethora of reviewers that compete for our attention on "Rotten Tomatoes" or "Metacritic"? For me it was the way he drew parallels between movies and real life. He was not judging a movie on its purely artistic or aesthetic merit; he stayed clear of high-sounding phrases and abstruse concepts. He didn't need and didn't want to show off his cinematic culture or talk condescendingly to his reader. On the contrary, his was an honest, almost heart- to-heart talk, in which he told us how he empathized with the characters, how he was drawn in by the plot, what details about the direction, the cinematography, the acting, the soundtrack had struck a particular chord with him.
But most importantly, he had this uncanny ability to put the movie in the context of "Life itself", to use the title of his book and of the recent documentary about his life. He extracted meaning from virtually every movie; a movie reviewed by Ebert wasn't just a movie, it became a vehicle for exploring our deepest emotions, aspirations, frustrations; a way of redefining our common humanity. After reading an Ebert review, I usually felt a strong connection with the man, because he had opened up to me, he wasn't lecturing me or forcing his interpretation on me.
In fact, he seemed to always want to underline, explicitly or implicitly, that the review was all about how the movie had resonated with HIM. He never pretended that movies weren't what they are: an entirely subjective experience. There are as many reviews as there are persons and, paradoxically, the more personal the review, the more interesting it gets. This is why I liked his reviews even when I didn't agree with them, even if I didn't feel the same emotions he experienced during the picture. After reading a review that I didn't agree with, I even took particular pride in holding a different point of view. Most professional reviewers make you feel stupid if you don't share their strong opinion: if you don't like a movie that they praised, then you are uncultured and unsophisticated; if you loved a movie they torpedoed, you are superficial and have bad taste
Ebert never made you feel that way; on the contrary, you always felt on a level plain.
The documentary "Life Itself", which touches on many aspects of Ebert's life and work, is unmissable for any fan. I would've preferred a more in-depth coverage of his reviews, his relationship with movies, especially the one's that changed his life. In my opinion, director Steve James dwells excessively on Ebert's terminal illness – close-ups of his chin-less face are omnipresent – and on his relationship with his wife and with his television partner Gene Siskel (which takes up an outsize portion of the documentary). For me, Ebert is all about his reviews, and to have given them so little space is a pity.
Even so, I would recommend spending two hours with "Life Itself", even if you've never read an Ebert review: it will introduce you to one of the best movie critics of all time, who has written reviews for half the history of motion pictures and touched the lives of thousands of people – including mine – guiding them through an exciting journey of discovery and self-discovery.
American Wedding (2003)
a waste of time
Time is precious. Especially when there are so many interesting and stimulating movies just waiting to be watched. That is why I think American Wedding is so bad: it kills time like a vacuum, leaving nothing after it. In fact, after having watched it I felt empty, stupid... just like after having eaten an insipid fruit or tasted spaghetti with no salt!
It's just not my style to watch movies that work very hard to entertain and to provoke laughter, while failing miserably at both. I'm not against the idea that movies should be fun and relaxing: that's why I decided to see American Wedding in the first place. However, instead of feeling relaxed and amused, I felt tense (trying to figure out when the plot was actually going to start...it never did!) and bored.
I think next time I'll go with Home Alone... Better yet, I'll go see one of IMDB's top 100 to bring some real taste into my evening...