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Reviews
Chasing Sleep (2000)
Abstract but logical
Chasing Sleep is more of an artistic endeavour through symbolism rather than a straightforward story. The average audience would find this film pointless and boring, though if one were to be open minded to its abstract ideas, they would find a deeply disturbing and interesting exploration into a character, and the study there of. The symbolic names add to the themes: George SIMIAN - relating to the primitive actions which the character embarks in, like an ape. Ed SAXON - relating to the evolved society, as in the character resorting to much less physical action.
Statments of societal conflicts are more represented than spoonfed to the audience. Though Ed is more advanced in his projection of self, he resorts to the advancements of man (the pills) to drown his worries, due to his wife's infidelities. The surreal scenes are paramount to tuning the audience in on the character's paranoia and past actions.
The sparse dialogue is often Kubrickian, and the dark imagery is somewhat Lynchian, while the story is quite Poe-esque (it seems to borrow a bit from The Tell Tale Heart). The slow disintigration of the house represents the character's disintigration of mind, his paranoia and conscience are eating away at him, because he is not a murderer or malicious man. But it also works on different levels where as it hints at the idea that his wife was murdered in the house itself and buried inside the walls - which also represents the burying of these memories in Ed's mind. If one would pay close attention to every action in the film, one would be able to decipher the actual story unveiling in reality while the character is drenched in his surreal world.
This film is abstract, and subjective in it's intention to involve the audience more than entertain. Perhaps some character's only exist in Ed's mind. It is for the audience to decide. While a film maker has the creative freedom to project their own ideas into something, they also must give enough for the audience to use their own imagination to create what happens according to them. Chasing Sleep gives the audience the power to use (like reading a book) rather than just be lost in some spoonfeeding frenzy.
Vanilla Sky (2001)
written for the screen
It is difficult to not draw comparisons to the recent film, abre los ojos, while viewing this pretentious work. The fact remains; it is an inferior film due to its overdose of ideas haphazardly thrown into the original piece from alejandro amenabar. the ideas and themes are outrageously inconsistent, as is the juxtapositions of dramatic visuals and silly music (Joan Osborne references). not to say that the soundtrack is not amazing, it is, but it overwhelms the scenes rather than adding to them. the dialogue (and visual) references to radiohead, bjork and Jeff Buckley were misplaced and unnatural, as though he wanted to prove he really is connoisseur of good music. though taste in music does not come in handy in filmmaking without the ability to apply that music to visuals tastefully. emotions were torn from scenes, and Crowe's additions to the original dialogue merely added to that juxtaposition in dramatic scenes. such as Kurt Russell's character being asked his daughter's names without responding, the audience was laughing rather than being enthralled with the scene. Crowe added to the hints of the ending rather than subduing them in dialogue and scenery (ala fight club) when the original film was subtle and more intellectual. people might say this is less of a mainstream film, when it shows all the qualities of mainstream filmmaking (i.e.: spoon feeding us all the answers in a short, ending summary) when again the original was more subtle and artistic in its own right. the "bringing to life" of the Dylan cover, and usage of "Monet" skies, and to kill a mockingbird were extremely inconsistent which nearly rendered them pointless. one must understand that consistency is needed to hold a piece of art together, whether it is in story, theme, or whatever aspect. in this case, the story was coherent and the theme was inconsistent, the latter being Crowe's addition. the camerawork was overdone and sometimes cliché', using a multitude of different ideas and styles throughout the film (ala snatch) and falling short of cohesion. I realize it is making a statement about pop culture icons being a centerpiece of American culture, but he succumbed to his own ideas he added to his movie, like creating a self-parody. David obviously came to a realization in the end, and wanted to throw that idolatry of superficialities away, and he did. that is intelligent, but also more subtle in the original. it is like Crowe made an exaggerated cartoon version of the original to spell out every detail of meaning which he gathered from it. Granted, I was delighted to see it wasn't an utter copy of the original, and brought forth some new ideas and styles than the original, but the ideas often fell flat, in a muddled, pretentious mass of film. So if you want to be spoon-fed a nice and tidy answer to a superior, more intellectual film, watch vanilla sky, the pretentiousness is overwhelming.
Rating: 6/10
The Straight Story (1999)
Direction at its finest
On of the aspects of pin-pointing a good director is by being able to notice their atmosphere an technique. David Lynch has made past films which were deemed "dark", "noir" or "disturbing", but this film distinguishes his ability to direct, and his diversity as a director. He maintains his atmosphere with the long shots, drawn out with little, to no sound, then adding in a climax to a certain scene, yet still maintaining a certain level of tension and wonder. Dialogue was sparse, but important, there was nothing left in there which was not needed to further the story and the philosophy of the story. The beginnings of Lynch's films are always so powerful and apparent, which sparks an interest in what follows. The noir-esque lighting was still apparent in such scenes as when Rose and Alvin were talking about the trip. Not too many films use quite a sleek filming style, and this one ranks Lynch up with the finest (Kubrick).