Change Your Image
tjackson24
Reviews
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
The meaning of 'camp'
People with a religious commitment to fictional superheros won't like this, but if you can enjoy 'tongue in cheek', this is right up there with the old Batman tv show: camp at its best.
Night on Earth (1991)
Jarmusch's best so far??
A director like Jarmusch who has such a consistant and strong visual and thematic style will necessarily tend to draw either strongly positive or strongly negative responses. You either think he's the greatest or you think it's a bunch of junk. For my money he's one of the best. Always visually very fine, serious in his look at the modern world, and so often funny at the same time. In fact maybe it's just the combination of aesthetic and philosophical high seriousness with humor that makes much of his work so satisfying, and of course links him with his main, to my mind, counterparts the Coen brothers. Of course in saying this I immediately place myself as more a fan of Down By LAw, Mystery Train, and Night on EArth, than his other less comic films. Anyway, if I had to choose I'd take Night on Earth as the one I most enjoy. Like his other films it really repays viewing many times. When are they going to release the thing on DVD??
The Wasp Woman (1959)
maximum camp`
hard to imagine this was susan cabot's last film role. the fact is she's pretty good and playing it straight, no matter that it's completely stupid. fabulously shallow look at women, aging, make-up, and the price paid for wanting to be young, beautiful, and cast in this film. watch this to see how corman maximizes uneventful footage by refusing to use any version of jump cutting. we get to see every instant of non-action. besides this he uses, i don't know, maybe 4 or 5 different sets, and then there's the fast-paced sequence of some unknown guy driving around some city looking for somebody or other. and then there's the wasp woman make-up that you can almost see a couple of times. what really strikes apart from the general camp-ola magnificence is the music. there's some more or less very hip avante garde jazz, i mean seriously, happening in the sound track, especially during the unknown guy's drive around the city. worth a look if you've got the taste for camp
Vertigo (1958)
my vote for the best of hitchcock
all great movies must be seen at least twice to understand how great they are. that is true in spades for vertigo. the story is smart the first time through. it's brilliant the second time through. the first time through we're identifying with scotty as he tries to find out what he needs to know. our knowledge is equal to his. but we get ahead of what he knows when we hear judy write her confession letter. now we know more than scotty and our knowledge is aligned with judy. so we begin to watch scotty to see if and when he'll come to know what we and judy know. the second time through we identify with madeline/judy as she tries to keep acting her assigned part while falling in love with scotty, so we watch to see when she begis to be NOT acting the part, which is to say resisting the role she has willingly taken on. the heavy irony is that as she struggles NOT to simply play her assigned part (because she's falling in love with scotty), she in fact seems all the more convincing IN the part. and then when she is judy, to pump up the irony even more, she has to struggle to play the part of who she really is. she has to pretend to be herself. This is as masterful a setup of irony as you'll come across. what a film.
Under Suspicion (1991)
a sadly under-rated and unknown film
i want to give a STRONG plug for this very fine film that has received almost no acclaim. if you enjoy cinematic plot twists and suspense, sexuality and greed, but not blood and guts, this is a film you should see. when i say it keeps you guessing up till the last minute, i mean just that. art, money, sex, mistresses, wives, good cops, bad cops, murder! got it all-give it a try.