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Saturday, July 13, 2013

"A Family of Surfers"

Posted on 9:28 AM by Unknown
SURFWISE



Year: 2007
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 1059
Director: Doug Pray
Starring: Dorian Paskowitz, Juliette Paskowitz, David Paskowitz, Navah Paskowitz

Surfwise is a documentary about a former physician named Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who in the late fifties gave up every material goods to dedicate his entire life to surfing, travelling from different places in his caravan along with his wife and his nine children, eight boys and one girl, who all knows how to surf. They later start a surfing school. This documentary follows all the Paskowitz' and each tells their stories about how their upbringing was, the advantages and the disadvantages of not living the conventional life. None of the children went to school, which made it impossible for some of them to follow their actual dreams.

Surfwise is a good documentary that gives you most of the important aspects of a non-material life and how difficult it is, and what price you have to pay. The film doesn't argue about which way of life is the best, but it's a clear lecture of what a free life is. There's also the psychological aspects, like Doc being hot tempered and violent, and the lack of school which makes it impossible for most of his children to follow their dreams. But what brings the whole family together is their religious passion for surfing, and some of the kids have followed in their father's footstep and even became world champions. But all of them agree's that they wouldn't have had it any other way, and that's probably the case for the rest of us, no matter how dark our life is. A wonderful documentary about life itself. Thumbs up.


Grade: A-

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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"Everything is Lost"

Posted on 9:26 AM by Unknown
BUFFALO '66



Year: 1998
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 934
Director: Vincent Gallo
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Christina Ricci, Ben Gazzara, Anjelica Huston

The multi-talented artist Vincent Gallo is known for his flexibility between different art forms such as music and films, both when it comes to composing, writing and performing. But he will always be best remembered for his indie classic Buffalo 66' which he directed, wrote and starred in. And it's also set in his own home town, Buffalo, New York.

Buffalo '66 is the story about Billy Brown (Gallo) who returns to his home town, Buffalo, after five years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. All that time he has lied to his parents (Anjelica Huston and Ben Gazzara) that he worked for the government and was married. But Billy kidnaps the first and best girl, a dancer named Layla (Christina Ricci) who must pretend to be his wife. But when we finally meet his parents it's certainly a shock to see how little they care about anything but football. They hardly remember anything about their son.

Buffalo '66 is a good melancholic indie film, with its small town post Reagan America. Gallo give us a great performance and a great character, a realistic haunted irritated individual. Christina Ricci's character, Layla is more interesting because while we know so much about Billy, we don't know anything about Layla. And it's also the fact that Billy often treats her like dirt, but no matter how cruel he is, Layla sticks with him, she probably got a tough life of her own.

The most surreal thing about this film is Billy's parents and how apathetic they are towards anything but football, specially his mother, who gave birth to Billy the day the local football team Buffalo Bill lost the Super Bowl of 1966. And she often says that it was Billy's fault for being born that day. He once decided to bet ten grand on the Buffalos winning the Super Bowl, but looses and he thinks he's forever doomed. Overall, Buffalo '66 is a good little film about the apathetic small town american with a surreal world view. Thumbs up.


Grade: B+

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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Saturday, July 6, 2013

"Cross-Dressing Cross Country"

Posted on 10:22 AM by Unknown
THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT



Year: 1994
Country: Australia
Language: English, Filipino
Number: 1003
Director: Stephan Elliot
Starring: Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp, Bill Hunter
Oscar wins: Best Costume Design

Stephan Elliott's The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is along with Muriel's Wedding the two Australian films from '94 that both have gained a big cult status, not only in Australia alone, but all over the world, with their use of ABBA music, unknown Aussie actors that later became world famous and two amazing performances by Australian character actor Bill Hunter.

Priscilla is the story about two drag queens, Mitzi (Hugo Weaving), Felicia (Guy Pearce) and a transsexual woman named Bernadette (Terence Stamp) who bought a buss that they named Priscilla in order to travel cross country to perform their drag queen dance numbers. But the trip is also a way for Bernadette to forget about her dead husband, while Mitzi just discovered that he has a son from a previous heterosexual marriage.

Priscilla is an enjoyable and entertaining road trip movie that have gained a big cult status in the gay and drag community. Where similar trips have occurred in real life, which includes standing on top of the Ayers Rock in drag. There's some pretty good dancing numbers as well that every one can enjoy. There's also some unforgettable supporting characters like Bill Hunter's Bob, an outback mechanic and his crazy Filipino mail order bride Marion, who is known for shooting ping pong balls out of... eh... somewhere. It's a road trip movie that teaches us very much about how tough the life is for most gay and drag people, and how they cope with it by breaking loose. Thumbs up.


Rating: B+

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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"The Result of Too Many Horror Movies"

Posted on 10:15 AM by Unknown
SCREAM



Year: 1996
Country: United States
Language: English
Number: 915
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Neve Campbell, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, David Arquette

Horror veteran Wes Craven who gave us the iconic horror figure Freddy Krueger from "A Nightmare on Elm Street" also saw the connection between every horror film ever made, all the cliches that everyone knows too well and is able to predict right away while we yell at the screen "Don't go inn there!". Craven's Scream is a parody of exactly that. And we as an audience can just sit back and laugh.

Scream is set in a small town where a serial killer is on the loose, killing people wearing a normal Halloween ghost mask. There's no connections between the murders, but our female protagonist, Sidney Prescot (Neve Campbell) who's mother was killed the year before, was also attacked by the killer, but escaped. There's also the news reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) who's trying to find the connection between Sidney's mother's death and all the other murders, because Sidney testified against the wrong man, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) who is about to be executed.

Scream is a great tribute to the highly predictable horror genre, by making it even more unpredictable, and giving us a serial killer who wants to follow all the rules of the horror genre, and we realize that more sequels are inevitable. It's also funny to watch all the victims don't take the killer seriously because they in fact have also watched too many horror movies. It's unconventional by being conventional. A big thumbs up.


Grade: A-

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

"Time Destroys Everything"

Posted on 10:05 AM by Unknown
IRRÉVERSIBLE



Year: 2002
Country: France
Language: French
Number: 1015
Director: Gaspar Noé
Starring: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel, Albert Dupontel, Jo Prestia

Gaspar Noe's Irreversible is the story about two men, Marcus (Vincent Cassel) and Pierre (Albert Dupontel) who looks all over Paris for the man who brutally raped Marcus' wife and Pierre's former girlfriend, Alex (Monica Bellucci). The special thing about this film is that it doesn't move chronological, but backwards, just like Christopher Nolan's Memento. It's starts with Marcus being carried away in an ambulance after been in a fight with the man who he thought was the rapist in a hardcore gay club. From then on we see all the events leading up to this event, even the rape itself, and Marcus' and Alex' troubled relationship and Pierre's feelings for Alex.

Irreversible is probably a film that one should stay away from if you are one of those who's fragile to violence to begin with, because this film is indeed very violent, with people being beaten to death while people around masturbates, and there's even a ten minute uncut rape scene. Should such violent ever been in this film. My answer is yes, because these are things that really happens, and it's not something you can turn away from.





But when it comes to the movie in general, it is truly a cinematic masterpiece, because of the use of constant shaky cam, to show us the characters' confusion and rage. And the movie also consists of only thirty long takes, and most of them is combined together through swish pans. The words "Time destroys everything" appears both in the beginning and in the end, as a metaphor for the inevitable. We know what's already happened and we are forced to sadly watch the pointless past that has no meaning and no matter what happens, all we see is why it happened, but there's no one to blame but the time itself.

Irreversible is one of those misanthropic films that makes you're faith in humanity even more fragile than it already is. And by showing us the history backwards it only becomes stronger. It literary breaks all the ten commandments. Some might find it unwatchable due to it's violence, but I advise people who can't stand violence to stay away. But if you have the guts to sit through it, you will see that this is a cinematic masterpiece. Thumbs up.


Grade: A+

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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Sunday, June 9, 2013

"Comical Horror Behavior"

Posted on 7:17 AM by Unknown
THE HOUSEMAID



Original title: 하녀 (Hanyo)
Year: 1960
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Number: 362
Director: Kim Ki-young
Starring: Lee Eun-shim, Ju Jeung-nyeo, Kim Jin Kyu, Ahn Sunge-kee

Kim Ki-young's horror classic The Housemaid is the story about a handsome music teacher who's in need of a housemaid to help around the house, because of his pregnant wife. One of his students finds him a housemaid, a crazy one, unfortunately, who's one of those unfortunate souls who have fallen obsessionally in love with the teacher, and starts to terrorize the rest of his family, his wife and two children.

The Housemaid is an alright exaggerated horror film, that's on the edge of being a comedy, because of how nice the teacher is treating the housemaid, even though she's a psycho from the start, and that he's continuing to treat her nice even when she do things that every regular person would have killed her, or at least fire her right away. I just couldn't buy the movie at all, even though there are some great dialogue and some enjoyable horror cliches which is enough to give this film a marginal thumbs up.


Rating: C+

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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Saturday, June 1, 2013

"Korean Fight Club"

Posted on 7:53 AM by Unknown
ATTACK THE GAS STATION



Original title: 주유소 습격 사건 (Juyuso seubgyuksageun)
Year: 1999
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
Number: 958
Director: Kim Sang-jin
Starring: Lee Sung-jae, Yu Oh-seong, Kang Seong-jin, Yoo Ji-tae

Kim Sang-jin's Attack the Gas Station is the story about four thugs who decides to rob a gas station in the middle of the night, because they are bored. They already robbed the same gas station once, but when the boss this time decides to hide all the money, the thugs decides to hold all the employees as hostages, while they are running the station in such a rude way, while they force the boss to come up with the money.

Attack the Gas Station is a great crime comedy, a hysterical one, because of the way the hostages are treated and how sometimes they turn against each other and even feels affection for their prison guard, Mu "Bulldozer" Dae-po, who always carrying a big stick and act like a strict sergeant, and I just laugh so hard when he's on screen. And it's also interesting and funny to watch the flashbacks of all the thugs that shows us the reason why they are robbing the gas station in the first place, they show us their broken dreams, and we kind of feel sorry for them.

This film have gained a special cult status in South Korea. There's even been similar attacks in real-life. It's like a Korean Fight Club. It is also a social commentary about the economic turmoil in South Korea in which car manufacturers was laying off thousands of employees. And it's also a commentary about american imperialism as well. In other words this is a movie about the frustrated South Korean youth. For me, Attack the Gas Station is the best Korean film I've seen so far. Thumbs up.


Rating: A+

You can read all my reviews on:
http://letterboxd.com/jentak19/
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