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Dwaj panowie 'N' (1962)
glimmers of Hitchcock
A record-keeping bureaucrat has a peculiar hobby of collecting information on those rare people who share his birthday, February 29th. One day, just before he is supposed to leave on a train, he adds another person to his records and discovers he already has a person with that name... and birthdate.. and birth parents. Yet these are two different people! Perplexed, he starts casually investigating, only to be murdered that very night. And so begins a sequence of events that broadens into a wider and wider conspiracy. The plot of this film follows an extremely Hitchcockian development, where an innocent action entangles an everyman into a deep conspiracy. However, whereas Hitchcock would then use this kind of plot to squeeze out lots of suspense, the direction and screen writing in this film squander some potentially thrilling moments of deception. Without the suspense, this film feels overlong and lacking much danger -- a tamer version of the noirs and thrillers coming out of America, England and France at the same time. It's too bad, because in the right hands this could have been quite a fun film to watch.
Towar (2006)
Amateurs, and it shows
This film was done on a small budget and with actors that were clearly nonprofessional and probably just friends of the filmmakers. That alone does not condemn a movie to being bad; in fact, quite a few great movies came about in that kind of a setting (e.g. "Night of the Living Dead"). What matters is the story and the skill with which the filmmakers transform their simple surroundings into something interesting. Unfortunately, you don't get that in Towar.
The story deals with some petty criminals involved in sex trafficking and theft. They pose and act tough and try to have witty conversations in the chatty style of Quentin Tarantino or similar filmmakers with a preference for criminals. These depictions of the criminals all come across as individual imitations of other films strung together with little direction or attention to keeping audience interest. In imitating, the filmmakers tried to mimic physical executions of the scenes, thinking that would evoke the qualities they liked. But they failed to observe the purpose of adjacent scenes in these other films, which were important for setting mood, character development, tension, etc.
The camera-work and editing follow a similar sequence of flaws. Many initial shots in the scenes were clearly set up in imitation of shots from popular films (e.g. low angle shot of a car pulling up, stopping right in front of the camera), but the interesting camera angles don't persist past this initial conceit in the scene. Another imitation came through the use of CGI to zoom from one shot to another, which served no purpose other than to show off someone's graphics skills. And please, somebody inform these filmmakers that there are other ways to transition between scenes than a fade to black!
All together it's a poorly executed storyline by people who know which scenes they like in movies but don't understand why they like them. There's no horribly obvious flaws here, yet the movie still fails miserably at keeping the audience interested. The film collapses under the cumulative weight of the multiple amateurish mistakes. The inexperience shows through the inability to keep pacing or create any tension or cohesion. Best avoid this film.
Spoilers of the North (1947)
Salmon piracy in Sitka
Matt Garraway, an unscrupulous salmon fisher tries to hatch a scheme in Sitka to fish past season using a loophole for Native Americans. He gathers a group of accomplices, including two Native Americans and sets to work. His plan faces some grudging opposition from his brother with a conscience and his oblivious fiancée, who comes up from Seattle to take care of him after he's injured. In short, there's more than one reason to find this guy to be a total scuzzbag and you don't feel bad when some problems begin with his operation and his personal life.
The plot is fairly standard for the decade, even with the exotic Alaskan setting. And boy do they make use of the setting: there's so much filler about the salmon industry and the salmon life-cycle, you half wonder if some real salmon cannery hadn't sponsored the movie. Unfortunately, another typical aspect from the era is racist jokes at the expense of Native American people, and this movie has its share. At least they're counterbalanced with the interesting character of Jane, the "half-breed", played by a fairly young Lorna Gray. She's full of conviction and has that spark of fire that makes her worth watching, and she performs the two most singularly interesting acts in the movie. It's because of her that I've given this movie an extra point above a pleasantly forgettable 6/10.
Personal Hygiene (1941)
Sing your way to cleanliness
An utterly bizarre military training video concerning the importance of good hygiene. A platoon has to deal with a slightly dim soldier who refuses to shower or keep clean. They decide to teach him by singing folksy songs to him to get him to brush his teeth, cut his toenails, wash his hands after using the bathroom, etc. It's utterly bizarre to have this group of soldiers break into song whenever the one soldier does something unhygienic. Very strange. You may want to watch it for the curiosity and humor factor, but otherwise I have no reason to recommend it. It's beyond me who in the military actually thought this video would actually accomplish anything and be taken seriously.
Los jornaleros (2003)
Only worth it for the unintended laughs
Boy, is this a terribly acted and terribly written movie. The overarching plot line is pretty decent, however each individual scene plays out in an unintentionally ridiculous manner. The only reaction you could have is to turn off the movie or laugh at their pathetic effort. I tried twice to watch this movie with friends, but both times they asked me to shut it off after five minutes, when the three cousins steal a guy's camera and run off yelling "eepa! eepa!". I ended up watching this movie alone a few nights later. At least scenes like that keep you entertained, but this movie's not worth the rental if you're looking for something worthwhile.
I disagree with the commenter who rated this movie a ten because it broke with the typical machismo and homophobia you see in Latin cinema. While that effort is admirable, the movie should at least be done fairly well before it's commended for being groundbreaking. Otherwise it does more harm than good. If you'd like to see a movie that does a far better treatment of those cultural barriers, I'd instead recommend "Quinceanera".
Czy Lucyna to dziewczyna? (1934)
For its time, a socially forward film on gender roles
"Is Lucyna a Girl?" is an old Polish cross-dressing comedy from 1934. A feisty young woman (Lucyna) comes back to Poland from Paris with an engineering degree and a sense of feminist liberation. She returns to Poland and decides to work in her father's factory, but in a mechanical job traditionally for men. To prove herself, she dresses as a man and things are going well until she falls in love with her superior. After that, it's a comedy of cross-dressing and awkward situations. For a good portion of the film, it follows standard cross-dressing formulas for comedy, with guys awkwardly reacting to having feelings for another guy, or girls hitting on Lucyna when she's in drag. Still, I was a bit shocked that in a 1934 film there was not only a girl on "guy" kiss (actual girl on girl), but also a guy on "guy" kiss (actual guy on girl). The movie doesn't chastise Lucyna for dressing as a man, so in terms of social implications of the movie, it was pretty impressively progressive. Of course, stereotypes of social mores crop up during the film, but the second-class treatment of women actually isn't as rigid as you'd expect. For example, Lucyna as a woman is in complete control of her plentitude of suitors.
In terms of comedic value, there's a bit of sitcom-like over-expression, but that's an artifact of the days of early sound film when everyone overdid facial expressions. There's a bunch of word plays peppered throughout the film that still are funny and translate well into English.
In terms of cinematic value, I was surprised that the fourth wall was broken a few times in the film. I didn't think that happened much before the 1950s, but maybe it was more commonplace in comedies. There are two scenes involving mirrors that are pretty well done: the first has a nice doubling effect between Lucyna and her masculine persona, while the second was completely unexpected and I'm not sure how they achieved it with the technology at the time. This film has some qualities that set it ahead of its time. Unfortunately, from a modern perspective these qualities have become very standard, which can make the film feel very dated. It's better if you keep in mind the social context. 8/10.
The White Rose (1967)
Violation of space
As the preface states, the movie shows the removal of the "White Rose" from the New York City apartment of female artist Jay DeFeo. The "White Rose" is a giant concrete-like painting and for whatever reason (eviction?), a crew of moving men comes to remove the painting from the apartment. They dislodge the painting from its place, crate it up, saw open a window in the apartment, and slide the painting through onto a lift truck. The artist observes from the sidelines, wanting to resist their actions but powerless to do so. The movers finally get the painting out of the apartment and into a moving truck, hauling it away, leaving the artist sitting despondently in her gaping, sawed open window.
Conner's steady depiction of the events creates a sense of violation of the artist's personal space. These men have entered her apartment, stomped about, and forcefully taken a precious object away from her, despite her attempts to resist. The metaphor for rape is so apparent and yet so subtle, with Conner completely conveying the sense of violation in an asexual setting. I felt like I was going through the disruption and violation right along with the artist and my sense of empathy for the victim was much stronger and more personal than I've felt in any movie that explicitly depicted a rape. Kudos to Conner for finding the emotional connection between such a traumatic experience as a rape and such a mundane event as moving a heavy object out of an apartment.
Komrades (2003)
unexpected depth
It's very clear from the beginning that the documentarian has a huge kink for Russian men in uniform. His opening narration tries to play it off as an interest in camaraderie and confident masculinity, but there's no hiding his desire for hearing Russian men's intimate stories of being in close quarters. And that's how the movie starts, with steadily more lustful questions about spending so much time in the barracks with just men all around. But just when you think it's going to run off with lusty sexual testimonies, the movie pulls the rug out from under you. The interviewees' recounts of pranks quickly give way to stories of hazing. And these hazing stories are just awful: people being kicked, punched and abused, sometimes fatally. Every interviewee had their own story of someone they knew who had died because of hazing. The interviewees also gave accounts of the harsh hazing they themselves endured. The worst part was hearing some interviewees just play it off as nothing that bad, that the hazers were just pulling a prank or a really good joke. Some of the other interviewees didn't brush things off as easily and you could tell they had really been emotionally scarred by the experience.
After hearing all those stories, the documentary switches back to the soldier's professions of undying camaraderie and drunken friendship. Everything that had been so admired about the institution suddenly becomes completely hollow and fake. It's really a stark transition, and one I doubt the filmmaker expected when he first set out on his trip. Even though the director intended to reveal deep-hidden carnal secrets, he managed to reveal far more shocking secrets about Russian military life. He had an uncanny knack for asking just the right questions, even when the interview went into waters he wasn't ready for. In this process, he unexpectedly documented a widespread system of abuse that Russian censors have fervently denied.
V.O. (2007)
lacks insight
This movie's premise is to take the audio tracks from classic European cinema and overlay it on the "in-between" scenes of classic gay porn. Either this is a brilliant piece of art or it's just a gimmick.
Unfortunately the evidence seems to point to the latter. The audio tracks rarely match up in theme to the scenes. Some audio clips show the potential of being amusing or imaginative reinterpretations of the scene, but the clip is usually too short to establish a connection. Throughout most of the movie I was just waiting for there to be an actual clip that was worth watching. That clip finally came late in the movie: two young men furtively court each other on a busy street. The action is narrated by a German woman with a trembling voice, barely restraining her emotion. It makes quite an apt combination.
If the entire movie consisted of clips as well matched as this one, it would be a great piece of art. Instead it's just an unrefined idea hastily edited onto film.
Strachy (1979)
Poorly scripted Communist propaganda
Strachy is a made-for-TV movie from the 70's that's just tailor made Communist propaganda. A young woman is working at a struggling theater. She's poor and her mother is barely able to raise all the younger brothers and sisters. There's a lot of sabotage in the theater among the performers who are trying to get ahead. Every character in the movie is hopelessly selfish. They struggle through hard times financially, but then when they get a windfall, they forget about everyone around them and splurge it. The father does not care about his family and pinches every cent he can from them. The daughter refuses to leave the theater and get a "real job" where she'd earn money to support her family. The movie basically consists of all these short events that are completely disconnected and just serve to undermine those unrealistic bourgeois dreams. Some propaganda films are still entertaining, but this one never goes anywhere beyond criticizing its characters for all their illogical selfishness and helplessness.
Przedwiosnie (2001)
Another "epic" piece of Polish literature brought to the screen
Over the last 10 years, the Poles have gone crazy bringing every major piece of their historic literature to the screen. Some have been excellent (Pan Tadeusz, Ogniem i Mieczem), but Przedwiosnie is an example where they rushed out a half-cooked movie.
The story begins with Cezary (Damiecki) living in Baku, Azerbaijan in 1914 with his Polish parents. The Bolshevik revolution arrives and turns their lives upside-down. His father tells him about how wonderful his homeland is and paints a paradise compared to the anguish they have under the Bolsheviks. Cezary acts upon his father's wishes and returns to Poland, but life there is not as wonderful as he was led to believe, and after a few years of calm life, war breaks out. The movie follows Cezary as his life is uprooted and replanted several times.
The story could have made for an excellent epic about revolutions, and how political turmoil affects people who just want calm lives. The story parallels the politics with the personal turmoil people create for themselves through their love lives and other interpersonal relationships. However in the execution, this film was rushed and the parallels are squandered and unused. Cuts between scenes are sudden; there's not enough development of some characters; and the film jumps through whole portions of the story so quickly you don't have time to appreciate and sympathize with the situation (especially in the opening setting of Baku). This film could have had so much depth, but instead falls flat and leaves you uninvolved. 6/10.
Twist (2003)
good idea, but falls a little flat
I thought the idea for this "modern update" was pretty in tune with Dickens' examination of the humanity in the castaways of society. However, the execution of this idea all but forgot about showing the humanity. The casting was pretty good, especially with the innocent Oliver (Joshua Close), and much of the script was written rather well. My big problem with the movie is the lack of development. We learn a lot about Dodge (at least enough to explain his actions), but it really felt like his complicated past wasn't treated in enough depth. The scenes with his brother were not written too well, or perhaps not acted very well, because you really didn't get enough of a feeling for what tormenting emotions these two were going through. Many of the characters don't get enough development, so you don't get to see glimpses of their humanity and compassion shining through the squalor. In fact, other than Oliver, the only character that even shows an inkling of caring for the welfare of others is Nancy. The other boys, including Dodge, just do their own thing, and there isn't a sense of them banding together to survive. Fagin doesn't get to show any of the underlying compassion he's supposed to have.
This movie comes across as depressing, and with good reason. While more faithful adaptations of Oliver Twist have the uplifting quality of people trying to leave their bad conditions, this movie just shows people sinking deeper into the muck. Perhaps this was intended by the writer/director, but the execution makes the movie less than memorable. 7/10. The movie had potential, but didn't use it.
*******************SPOILER ALERT**********************************
Another commenter mentions that Dodge goes off in the end to kill the Senator. Dodge doesn't kill the Senator, he kills Bill. He kills the man who caused all this turmoil for him and the other characters. He kills the man who has essentially filled the role of his father as abuser.
The Rules of Attraction (2002)
Pretentious Trash
Pretentious piece of trash about the lives of several college students. One's a drug dealer, another is a gay guy who has a knack for going after straight guys, and lastly is a girl trying to lose her virginity but struggling with the desire to make it special. The result: a movie filled with rich 20-somethings getting drunk, getting high, and having lots of sex. There's no real storyline, just fancy directing techniques like reverse filming which provide the segues between some scenes. Most of the interactions involve the characters waxing poetically about their lives and their meaningless relationships. Any of the "love" the characters have comes off as completely artificial, and you can't be sympathetic to anyone's plight. However, I wouldn't say there are any antiheros either, just boring ambling people who don't know what to do with themselves other than do drugs and have sex. Their crises are trite and the script is full of wordy diatribes that amount to nothing.
The performances are overall rather bad, with a few shining through the muck: Sossamon delivers a pretty solid character, and Somerhalder presents the most sympathetic character out of the bunch (though I may just be saying that because I thought he was incredibly good looking). Van der Beek was a slight miscast, however the worst cast was Collins Jr as the drug dealer--completely unconvincing. Ultimately though, the movie suffered from a poor script and a director who thinks too highly of the artistic quality of his direction. 4/10
Siu Lam juk kau (2001)
amusing to watch once
Shaolin Soccer is one of those movies that's good to watch only once. It spoofs the whole kung fu genre with excellent jokes and scenes. It's quirky enough to be thoroughly enjoyable, so just kick back and have some fun.
The storyline had plenty of wholes and unmotivated transitions, but the first time you see the movie, you can be forgiving because of all the laughs. I'm guessing that on subsequent viewings, the movie wouldn't be quite as funny and would probably even be boring. There was not that much kung fu, and way too many computer-effects, especially towards the end. But the jokes were really really funny, so just for that, I think the movie is worth seeing.
7/10
Rumble Fish (1983)
Never hits the ground
Rumble Fish certainly has a dreamy atmosphere to it. Perhaps that's because the characters and the plot just amble along with no direction. Suddenly they're here, suddenly they're there, but you have no idea why. Characters pop in and out of scenes like magic--it's like whenever you want to develop a character, they're there for Rusty James and Motorcycle Boy to run into. These effects don't have to be damaging, but when they are combined with the boring characters, the story becomes even more ridiculous. One could care less about the dim-witted Rusty Jones, or his mysterious and seemingly prophetic brother. You wait the entire movie for the brother to say something profound or revelatory, but all we get are his soft, hushed words laced with indirectness and obscurity. Not only does Motorcycle Boy no longer fit in with the people of the town, but he completely doesn't fit in with the world. He's just a fake mysterioso who doesn't have anything good to say and consequently just wraps himself in mystery. The characters seem forced and the movie misses it's mark. A much better movie on the topic is the superior The Outsiders, which was also directed by Coppola and also starred Dillon.