Thirteen Days - 5

This film deals with the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. It is an intense movie to watch because of the magnitude of the decisions that needed to be made by the president and his counsel during the thirteen days before the deal for diplomacy was finally made. It is an interesting story to tell and the story is told well, mainly from the perspective of Kenny O'Donnell, Special Assistant to the President. The film shows the tension well, and the stress that is involved in having the weighty decisions on one's shoulders. These major decisions that effect the lives of millions places great responsibility in the hands of our politicians, which made me think maybe voting really is a great responsibility of the common citizen. Then again the politicians we do have don't inspire us to trust their use of the great power that they have. Somehow we will have to let something other than fear drive us.

Miracle - 6

This film is the true story of the 1980 US Olympic hockey team. The came into the tournament a complete underdog and ended up beating the Soviet team who had won all of the contest since 1960. The story revolves around the head coach, Herb Brooks, and his coaching style which is pretty harsh--making the team do skating drills until 3am after one particular game. The players were all recent college graduates, due to the amateur rule. The point of the film is to show that hard work and conditioning is a key to the game. The sentimental part of the film is that the team came together as a community that cared for each other and that allowed them to do something greater than themselves. How much a part of the real story is true is--well, let's just say it's a Disney film. The title is in reference to Al Michaels TV commentary in which he says, "Do you believe in miracles!?" The people who witnessed the event could barely believe what had happened, such an outrageous upset. The team went on to win the gold over Finland, which is a minor point in the film. Since this happened in the middle of the cold war that help to make this game even more meaningful for the country and the players involved. I think the story is well told despite its nostalgia.

It's impossible to learn to plow by reading books - 2

Richard Linklater's first film, this is slow moving and is a very passive movie, with very little dialogue. It was also made for $3000, which shows. The title sounded interesting, but it is from a common Russian saying that the main character has on his t-shirt. This film does show some of the early ideas that Linklater had that he included in his much better films: Waking Life and Slacker. You will probably enjoy this film if you are a huge fan, but other than that it is sort of like watching a distant relatives wedding video--no, not the one with the drunk uncle, the one where nothing happens.

Slacker - 5

This film was done earlier than Waking Life which was also written and directed by Richard Linklater. It is similar, yet more scattered, as there are no main characters. It is a lot of small vignettes with conversations about almost everything; terrorism, government, aliens, love, relationships, etc. It engages the ideas and dialogue that Linklater is capturing of the twentysomethings at the beginning of the 90's. There are some memorable scenes and quotes despite the disconnectedness of the dialogue. Someone recently told me that films like this work well for teaching or showing to others who won't watch the whole film, because they need almost no context. A film for a weeknight rather than something to watch for entertainment on the weekend.

The Decalogue: IV-VII - 6

This is the second disc in the series (I didn't mention this is my last post but this whole series is in Polish with subtitles). This one covers the commandments, honor your father and mother, you shall not murder, and you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal. These middle four are very well done, with interesting plots and stories that expand on the meaning of each of the commands. These episodes also bring up good questions about the death penalty and interesting legal puzzles, which more than likely comes from Piesiewicz, who originally went to law school and practiced law before helping to write these films (The obvious connection is that the ten commandments are ancient legal documents). The second disc is easier to understand and a little less obscure than the first. If you are looking for some film-making with depth this is a good place to start.

The Fugitive - 6

I liked this film on second viewing more than the first time on its release back in 1993. I have since seen so many spoofs of it, that I had lost the original story. It is actually a pretty intense action/drama, and both Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones do a good job of playing the parts. There are many interesting twists that lead to the truth of the situation. Overall, excellently done and entertaining to boot.

The Decalogue: I-III - 6

The Decalogue was originally show on television in Poland from 1987-1989. It is the work of Krzysztof Kieslowski (director of the trilogy Blue, White, and Red, as well as Heaven) and Krzysztof Piesiewicz (co-author with Kieslowski of The Decalogue and Three Colors trilogy). Each episode is "based" on each of the corresponding commandments and are about an hour long each. The first disc contains the first three commandments (no other gods, no created image of God, and no abuse of God's name). These films take a lot of patience. They are artfully done, but that also means that you will miss something if you don't have a somewhat long attention span. These films are good at asking good questions: the meaning of life, God, death, love, etc. These films seem to show how applicable the commandments might still be in modern life.
note: I promise to drop the film snobbiness and get back to popular culture soon.

The Merchant of Venice (2004) - 5

The way this film is shot you are constantly waiting for the blood bath to begin, as is the usual for Shakespearean tragedies. As far as I can tell this is actually one of his comedies; justice wins out and there is even some cross-dressing deception (I use the word comedy in its classical sense, it doesn't have any bathroom jokes like most of the movies that we call comedies in our culture). The director takes a lot of liberties with the story by shooting scenes with no dialogue but are still apart of the storytelling. When it comes to Shakespeare the burden of story telling is on the actors, although in film the director has more sway than the actors. I think I still prefer to see Shakespearean plays live. This film does a reasonable job considering the constraints of this medium of film.

Coldplay Fix You

The new Coldplay album, X & Y, is really pretty good. It is close enough to the other albums to still sound like Coldplay while they move freely within those boundaries. My current favorite song, musically anyway, is Fix You, here are the lyrics:
when you try your best but you don't succeed
when you get what you want but not what you need
when you feel so tired but you can't sleep
stuck in reverse
and the tears come streaming down your face
when you lose something you can't replace
when you love someone but it goes to waste
could it be worse?
lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
and i will try to fix you
high up above or down below
when you're too in love to let it go
and if you never try, you'll never know
just what you're worth
lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
and i will try to fix you
tears stream down on your face
when you lose something you cannot replace
the tears stream down on your face
and I...
lights will guide you home
and ignite your bones
and i will try to fix you

Crimes and Misdemeanors - 6

This is one of Woody Allen's best films. It is more seamless than some of his other work. He has a gift for introducing great philosophical discussion into his stories. This particular story is less wacky than most of his others, which makes it more believable that the characters are struggling to make sense of life. Their is an interesting dialogue throughout the film about if there is any morality. And if there is: is it in human nature? do we make it up culturally? All of this goes along with and compliments the main story of a man with a dilemma of fidelity. In the end he comes to the conclusion that guilt is merely a state of mind for a time and it passes. Allen has a way of making the audience think twice before accepting this "blindly" (I don't think it is an accident that the main character is an eye doctor). Allen is good at making the dialogue flow so that these deep conversations can happen without it feeling like a stale philosophy class. This film lets the audience decide whether it is a tragedy or a comedy, or maybe both.

What time is it?

Recently I have had conversations that have tested out my ranking system and have caused me to think about the very subjective views taken in my blog. One of the keys to understanding my entries it to consider the time that I watched the film. I don't mean this in the literal sense of it was exactly 8:03 when the scene with the guy with the mustache and the eyes shot the women with the hair and the ears. What I mean is that their is a context, a story that it resides in, to the viewing which adds or subtracts meaning from the film. A good example of this is that some films relate very well to what I am reading, and the connection allows me to see the story in a wider context and judge the film based on the added connections to my own wider world. One's reaction to art always happens in time and I think that it is an important aspect of how we view it and respond to it. So, while my entries will remain subjective I don't think that takes anything away from other's views of the same films, or that I haven't hit on a theme or idea that is true of the film. But then again I could just as easily miss some good connections. Comments have been a good way for me to reconsider the films in a new light.

Dazed and Confused - 5

This is an interesting period piece. Not one from the 19th century mind you, but an interesting look at a typical high school in the mid-70's. It is actually a quite nostalgic look at this time period, except the junior high hazings. It has plenty of ironic lines like, "The 80's are going to be great, how much worse could it get." This film is really a look at a group of people rather than a story or plot. It is really about teenagers trying to live life to its fullest, or maybe just what they think that is.

Being Julia - 4

The last twenty minutes seem somewhat valuable, while the stuff before it seems to not really amount to much. A lot of people will probably see this film because Annette Bening was nominated for an Oscar in her role. While she does a good job, I think actors like seeing themselves portrayed in films especially as heroes and heroines, or at least in a very positive light (Much the same way that journalists are good at creating a buzz about writing and journalism). Near the end, Julia's son makes the most interesting point of discussion in the movie, which is the masks and roles that we have in our life and how we are actors in our own lives. This statement is not taken very seriously by the film, but the audience can easily start to see the doubt in the question: who is our "real" self? Or do we memorize the scripts and merely use others so that we can be the star of the show (For a better film that address these issues see About a Boy - 7). Although it engages these good questions it does so on a somewhat shallow level, which is disappointing.

Pi: Faith in Chaos - 6

I suspect very many people have seen this film or will in the future (Not only is it in black and white, which makes it an "artsy" film, but because it deals with the psychology of the main character it involves a lot of sharp noises and is at times hard to follow, notice the double meaning in the sub-title). It is one of those films that is not passive enough for the contemporary viewer. It is about a mathematician who sees the world in the patterns of numbers, and who is convinced that patterns can explain even social institutions like the stock market. He also happens to be on a lot of meds. The director (Darren Aronofsky, who also did Requiem for a Dream) lets the viewer into that world, which is mostly scary. It is a rather dark film as the Max slowly looses sanity as his obsession with the pattern of numbers grows. The film is a really good example of epistemology in film. Max, know that the reality and the world are knowable, but he is unable to grasp the meaning that might should by definition be in the pattern.

Kinsey - 5

While this is yet another biopic to come out in 2004, this one is somewhat different in that it deals also with the topic of Alfred Kinsey's research and the questions that involves, as much as it involves the details of his life. It deals with the questions of the time, how to deal with sexuality in the modern age of science as the authority on truth. I think that gives the film the tension that it does, because it is trying to show societal change from the enlightenment project to deconstructionism. In some ways I think the film compromises the character of Kinsey's story in order to tell the story of the development of sex research. The film does fudge some of the historical data in order to put the research and current societal views compatible. For example from the movie alone you might get the idea that he studied many different racial groups when in fact his actual sample only included whites. It also seems to assume that Kinsey used the random sample method, which in fact, he rejected. Later in the film the discussion gets better when the researchers themselves find that the struggle to distance themselves from the moral dimensions of science is difficult and maybe impossible. The film does a good job of leaving the viewer to think over their own views of what is normative, not only for sexuality, but for all of life. And, ultimately how that worldview is fleshed out in their choices and decisions.

Miller's Crossing - 6

This is the Coen brother's third film, which is very well done (I have now seen all of the movies that the Coen brothers have written, and made). This film takes place in the 30's and is mobster movie. The cinematography is really well done. The story follows Tom who is crosses and double crosses his bosses and other mobsters in order to save his own skin. His gift, or curse, is that he can lie well, and that his heart has been numbed to the world. He learns throughout the film that the more he cares the more he has to loose, this brings him to the crisis point at the end of the film. He is successful in the mob only because he has learned how to hide his own humanity. The Coen brothers are some of the best writers in Hollywood in my opinion. Here is a list and ranking of all of their films:
The Ladykillers (2004) - 6
Intolerable Cruelty (2003) - 4
The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) - 6
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - 7
The Big Lebowski (1998) - 6
Fargo (1996) - 6
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)- 6
Barton Fink (1991) - 3
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Raising Arizona (1987) - 7
Blood Simple. (1984) - 6

Amores Perros - 6

The English title of this film is: Love's a Bitch. And in this case they are using both meanings. Each of the three separate, yet connected, stories involves people's love for their dogs, and broken human relationships. The first story is one of two brothers who are in love with the same women that the older, and abusive, brother is married to. The younger brother tries to provide a better life for his sister-in-law and her children by getting the family dog into betting fights. The second story is of a man who leaves his wife and two children to start a new life with his mistress. The doubt and the dog come between them to unfortunate consequences. The third story is about a man who went to prison and has a daughter who thinks he is dead, the father is trying to keep a promise to the now dead mother not to contact his daughter. To see the failure of human love and the struggle to know how to survive and keep on loving is hard to watch. In the end, this film shows that love can indeed be a bitch. It is good to sometimes see this harsh reality, as long as it does not result in total cynicism.