MulhollandRob's Reviews

There Will Be Blood (2007)

10/10

The Best Film of 2007

25 January 2008

Warning: Spoilers

Bold, ambitious, and macabre, Paul Thomas Anderson's, There Will Be Blood is a unique and unforgettable experience. A terrifying character study of one man's greed and ego, and played with immense and uncanny intensity by the amazing and brilliant Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood is a masterful and allegorical study of capitalism, oil, power, and faith at the turn of the 20th century. In the astonishing opening, we see nothing but a series of gorgeous shots of an uninviting landscape. There is no dialog, just ominous images of a landscape. On the soundtrack (scored by Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood) we hear a discord getting higher and higher until we see the wordless quest by Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis in a Oscar winning performance), who's inside a hole in the lower ground of the landscape looking for silver.

There Will Be Blood is a masterful American character study, as Daneil Plan view, Day-Lewis brings the madness of a ruthless, egomaniac oil tycoon.

With a innovative narrative structure like The Assassination of Jesse James, There Will Be Blood has a sprawling narrative structure that chronicles three decades, begging at the end of the 19th century and ending in the 1920's. In the beginning of the film Plainview's quest for silver leads him to a huge discovery and fortune of oil. He's obsessed with wealth and prosperity, and his vision can only be understood and pieced together hours after seeing the movie. He has son named H.W. (Dillon Freasier) that he uses as a disguise to convince people that he's a family man so he can drill wherever he wants. He even lets his son ear in the business meetings.

In one of the meetings Daniel Plainview and his right hand man Fletcher (Hinds) encounters a young man named Paul Sunday (Paul Dano from Little Miss Sunshine), who informs Daniel about a huge chunk of land that sits on top of an enormous sea of oil. Majority of the film's running time depicts Plainview conquest for triumph and wealth, and Paul's frequent feud with Paul's identical twin brother Eli, a preacher in the towns local church called the Church of the Third Revelation.

This type of turmoil between the two men leads to a psychological standoff, and raises ambiguous questions if Paul and Eli are really identical twins or the same person because Eli becomes a two-faced enemy and rival to Planview. Their stand-off defines the rich themes and ideas of There Will Be Blood, one of a greedy and ruthless entrepreneur, and a self-serving, maniacal evangelical. Both men are obsessed, both are egotistic, both want to be on top.

In the midst of their problems, Planviews son H.W. suffers a tragedy that alters their relationship forever. A man, Henri (Kevin J O'Connor) arrives into town claiming to be Plainview's long, lost half-brother, and Plainview begins to up to his brother in a mesmerizing monologue stating "I have a competition in me; I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people. There are times I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I've built up my hatreds over the years little by little. I see the worst in people. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I want to earn enough money so I can get away from everyone I can't keep doing this on my own, with these people."

Henri becomes the only person that Planview begins to open up to, only for it to be revealed that Henri is a fraud. The betrayal leads Planview to a downward spiral and he lives a life of an isolated misanthrope, he has disdain for humanity, and he lives on and gets rich enough to accomplish his goal of getting away from everyone.

As for There Will Be Blood technically, its beautifully and brilliantly crafted, its a true work of art. The production design by Jack Fisk, who's worked on all of Terrence Malick's films and David Lynch movies, is rich, meticulous, and ravishing. Robert Elswit's widescreen cinematography is sweeping and well-composed. Anderson's trademark tracking shots and long takes are awe-inspiring, and the framing and composition are all beautifully composed.

There's a dark majesty to There Will Be Blood, and the conclusion will leave many scratching their heads like they did with No Country For Old Men. The conclusion is a bit over-the-top and theatrical, but its one o those endings that works thematically, yet execution will leave many baffled and perplexed.

Still there's no denying There Will Be Blood works as a rich piece of art, it disturbs, provokes, and challenges. In the finale Planview has alone last stand off with Eli, and its highly theatrical, but probable. Its the finale that's going to divide many, as for myself i;m in the middle about and I really want to see this movie again and reevaluate it.

In the end , There Will Blood profoundly suggests how individualism is what built this country, yet now its no longer embraced in our society. Plainview's ambitions and greed led to self-destruction. He lost all fundamentals of human values like hope, love, and community. His greed dissolved into something destructive and self-serving.

That's what makes Blood such a terrifying and fascinating experience is Anderson's refusal to rationalize Plainview. In the end There Will Be Blood will baffle and disturb many, and like all great works of art this film intruded my consciousness like my favorite movie of last year INLAND EMPIRE, and There Will Be Like like INLAND EMPIRE is a rare, gripping, and masterful movie that doesn't come around to often.

Rating **** out of **** A Masterpiece!!!

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The Fountain (2006)

10/10

A lyrical and ethereal meditation on love and death!

24 November 2006

The Fountain

Last night while I was watching "The Fountain" a large obnoxious crowd of young college students were laughing during powerful moments of "The Fountain", maybe they were to daft or ignorant to appreciate the genius of it, or just possible they went in expecting X-Men 4 or something, after the film ended and the credits were running they were criticizing the film and saying the most immature insults I think I ever heard in a movie theater. It then clicked to me that while that crowd thought they were superior to the film, Darren Aronofsky is already five steps ahead of them.

There are also apologies from film critics indicating that that "The Fountain" is too confusing, and complex. What the hell, are we getting to that level now where we have to apologize to audiences because a film isn't straightforward enough? Darren Aronofsky's bold and beautiful film "The Fountain", is quite negative on rottentomatoes.com at the moment, I feel as if the audiences have transformed and hi-jacked film critics. It may be non-linear, but it's quite a philosophical, ethereal journey of memory, loss, and regret.

Let's not forget such masterpieces as "2001: A Space Odessy", "Eraserhead", "Blue Velvet", "Peeping Tom", "A Clockwork Orange", and most recently "The Passion of the Christ", "The New World", were all poorly received by many critics in their release, but are now considered classics. If "The Fountain" admirers join together, and the elite critics stay together (Chud.com, Glenn Kenny from Premiere also loved it) and if the film receives a cult following it will reach that status.

It's been six long years since Darren Aronofsky has directed a film, and let me tell you, the wait is worth it. "The Fountain" in many aspects is like a sci-fi Terrence Malick film, the lyrical direction, the visual poetry, the inaccessible storytelling is all there. The result is a beautifully heartbreaking, visually sublime, hypnotic meditation of nature, love, and identity. It's a film where you avoid to make sense of it, and just surrender yourself with the rhythm and flow.

More of an experience, then a film; "The Fountain" will you leave you speechless from start to finish, and when it's over you'll be perplexed by the experience. Director Aronofsky, in his third film, is by far the most ambitious project of his career. In 1998 Aronofsky made the most explosive film debut since David Lynch's "Eraserhead". It was strikingly shot and artfully maddening film debut that put Aronofsky on the map. Aronofsky has always had sci-fi elements throughout his work; "Pi" invoked the paranoia of Franz Kafka within high-contrast black and white, within fuzzy framework. "The Fountain" like his other films are demanding works of provocation.

Aronofsky's second film was absolutely remarkable; "Requiem for a Dream" was an intense, and disturbing film that perfectly captured the horrors of drug-addiction. Aronofsky proved with "Requeim" that he was a first-rate filmmaker of intelligent ideas, subjectivity, and style.

Aronosky has done it again, his direction in "The Fountain" is nothing short of extraordinary. Like a Terrence Malick film, it transports you in a world of beauty, and despair. More of a film that relies on imagery, and visual storytelling instead of linear narrative, "The Fountain's" powerful imagery speaks for itself, Aronofsky philosophizes the process of life, death, existence, nature, reincarnation, and how true love and life can never decay.

Chronicling three centuries spanning from the 16th, the present, and 26th century, in the midst of 500 years separating each story. "The Fountain" is essentially a love saga; each story is a repetition of one man's passion, destiny, and love that lies in a tree of immortality. In the present story, Tom (Hugh Jackman) is a scientist in which is wife Isabel (Rachel Weisz) is on the verge of dying from a severe brain tumor. Tom struggles to find a cure out of a monkey that can save her life. Meanwhile in the 16th century a conquistador Tomas (also Jackman) is ordered by the Spanish Queen Isabel to voyage to the New World of South America to search in a Mayan temple that secures the everlasting fountain of youth, which is the tree of life where its later revealed that Isabel is writing a novel titled "The Tree of Life".

In the third and most visually stunning story in the future has Tom (Jackman) again as a bald, despondent longing and meditating in a bubble flying through space and cosmos with the decaying tree inside the bubble. Tom is on a voyage to a star named Xibalia where the Mayan's believe is a heavenly, gateway world of rebirth.

The sound of this might sound silly, or absurd, but it's ravishing. The multi-layered, meta narrative is actually balanced with its visual language. The use of camera angles, motifs, zoom/dolly outs, and saturated colors, Aronofsky astonishing direction perfectly creates the melancholy atmosphere. It's a visionary work, that is highly imaginative, lavish, and ambitious. It's going to be an overlooked classic in the making.

Aronosky's "The Fountain" has already been compared by a few to Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey", and rightfully so. In both audacity, and ambition, Aronofsky's vision is both cerebral and dazzling in execution. However, Aronofsky is more sincere, where Kubrick was more of a cynic. Overall with its poignant, and sentimental ideas of love and life, "The Fountain" is the ultimate fragility of hope.

Rating **** out of ****

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Babel (I) (2006)

10/10

What we got here, is the failure to communicate!

5 November 2006

Babel Mixing in geopolitics, along with intimate overlapping stories about parents and children, in a thematically complex and utterly compelling style, "Babel", is Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's third film, is the closing finale to the film trilogy that includes his groundbreaking debut "Amores Perros", and the raw and gripping "21 Grams", "Babel" is his most ambitious, and powerful film to date.

Returning with writer Guillermo Arriago, who also wrote "Amores Perros", and "21 Grams", will be the last film they will ever work on together. What a dynamic duo these two talents are, its quite possibly one of the most talented film-making duo's in the business today, other then the duo of Spike Jonez & Charlie Kaufman" Where "Amores Perros" was also an affecting and powerful film, the overlapping story lines weren't as evenly constructed as "Babel". Where "21 Grams" also had a muddled, jumbled narrative, the characters were given raw complexity, but not as much emotional weight as the characters are given in "Babel". Its safe to say "Babel" is the crowning work in the trilogy.

Using the same narrative structure used in "Amores Perros", and "21 Grams", which both films were influenced by the nonlinear strategy of "Pulp Fiction", these are interlocking stories, where the parallel editing is not in simultaneous action. The use of this structure at times comes off a little too stylistic in other films, however Arriago always deftly uses the overlapping structure that never undermines the material.

With four interlocking stories, in four different settings that include Mexico, Morocco, Japan, and southern California, all the stories have rhythms of tragedy, loss, miscommunication, and redemption. The first tragedy occurs, where two Moroccan boys fire a shot at a bus, that leads to a World-Wide tragic of an American couple (Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett) that are traveling to Morocco. The other is about a Mexican Nanny, the third story is a Japanese father and rebellious daughter in Tokyo.

All these characters fit in the theme of loss, that is both physical and emotional. All these tragedies are heightened by the lack of understanding and miscommunication in a post 9/11 world. The title is a reference to a biblical term that indicates the difficulties of understanding languages.

Ambitiously shot in the real settings of countries that include Mexico, Japan, and Morroco, and using the native languages, "Babel" brilliantly establishes the failure of human communication and connection. The characters in "Babel" are trapped and lost in their own isolated worlds of despair. The specifics in the film illuminate this, take for example the first tale of Richard and Susan, they are in Morocco, they are isolated, emotionally and physically in a far Third-World country.

It's revealed in the film that they have recently experienced the lost of one of their children, in a tragedy that both characters hold responsible for each other. They haven't recovered from the tragedy yet, there is a sense there is a lack of intimacy and chemistry between the two, and its noticeable in a striking and equally affecting scene where Susan is suffering from her bullet wound, and she needs to go the bathroom and Richard gets her a pan, and their interaction hints at something that has been missing since the tragedy. This section of the film is the most raw, gripping, and shattering one of the three.

The second tale is probably the most absorbing one of the three. Its revealed Amelia is an illegal immigrant nanny for Richard and Susan in San Diego. She's in dire need to attend her son's wedding in Mexico, and travels back to Mexico with her irresponsible nephew Santiago (Gael Garcia Bernal), she illegally sneaks the kids across the border to the wedding. On the way back home, they are interrogated by border men. The incident leads an escape, to Amelia and the kids being stranded in the desert.

This story is probably the most personal for both Innaritu and Arriago. This tale is the parable of the three, to capture how hypocritical and arbitrary the border policy are in both the Mexican and American governments. Its revealed that Amelia was a working in America for 10 years, that raised children of an embassy official, and she is given no regard in either country.

The third story, which is the most literal, is where the rich nuances are. Its about a Japanese father (Koji Yokusho) trying to reach out emotionally to his deaf daughter Chieko (Rinko Kikuchi). Chiecko is shattered by the suicide of her mother, and she endures desperate heights in trying to reach out for affection and understanding. This is the story where some will dismiss "Babel" as being manipulative or unconvincing, especially the way this story is linked to the Morroco narrative, however this is where the rich and honest pathos lies.

There is an astonishing disco scene where we get the point-of-view and reaction shots Chieko inside a dance club, where sound goes in and out as we get a glimpse of what Chiecko is experiencing. Kikuchi captures every nuance and vulnerability in this role, just look at how fragile the scene is when she stands naked on the balcony in her own isolated world of Tokyo.

Essentially, "Babel" is a beautiful, and equally shattering portrait of a world in crises. "Babel" is galvanizing, and will internally stay inside the memories of cinephiles, its so unforgettable.

Rating **** out of ****

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Syriana (2005)

10/10

A truly complex and engrossing political thriller

9 December 2005

"Syriana" is a film that will instantly be dismissed by many because of its narrative structure, a majority of people walking out of the screening that I attended were confused and puzzled. If everything you watch on film fails to make sense, its only because a majority of everything that occurs politically in today's world defies logic. It's a film that doesn't exactly explain how every subplot, character, or scenario, is connected, its a movie that works effectively on each and every scene. It's a film that is so vivid, you feel as if the camera is just eavesdroping. With all that being said, writer-director Steven Gaghanhas made one of the most engrossing and complex films you will see at your multiplex.

By far one of the most ambitious Hollywood movies of the year, Gaghan has created a bold, intelligent, and rewarding movie that says something politically and equally profoundly.

With the hyper-link structure that resembles the narrative of "Traffic",( which Gaghan also wrote the script for and Steven Soderbergh directed superbly). The film explores about a dozen characters in five different stories, which in the end are all connected in the reality of big business. Steve Gaghan has created a brilliant film that should not be ingored.

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Sideways (2004)

10/10

"Sideways" is about the understanding of humanity!!

20 February 2005

Yes i'm aware that "Sideways" is not for everyone, its OK i'm used to it. Its sad that great movies are not widely appreciated enough. "Sideways" is indeed the most involving, moving, and best film of the year. Co-Writer and Director Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt) perfectly captures friendship, loneliness, and regret in this enormously engaging, and hilarious but equally heartbreaking movie. Based on Rex Pickett's novel, means "drunk" -- the more or less permanent condition of Miles Raymond. Miles, played to utter perfection by Paul Giamatti, gives probably the best Lead Acting performance of the year (yes even better then Jamie Foxx extraordinary performance in "Ray"). The Supporting performances are rich and natural, Thomas Hayden Chuch is an eye-opener as Jack, a former' college roommate of Miles, he plays a fading actor and horn dog junkie due to get married in a week. Virginia Madsen is also great, as Mile's love interest. "Sideways" makes an even greater argument that Payne is on the rise of becoming one of the most dominant young filmmakers working today.

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Irreversible (2002)

10/10

Why would Pierre go to prison for killing the Tenia's friend?

17 August 2003

When they are taking Marcus and Pierre out of Club le Rectum, you hear voices in the background saying Pierre is going down for 10 years in prison. Wouldn't that be considered self-defense for killing The Tenia's friend? I mean they think he is the rapist, and Pierre was helping Marcus in self-defense.

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Gerry (2002)

10/10

Admirable Work of Art!!

14 April 2003

As the first reel of the film opens up, there is no opening credits, no title, just an overly long beautiful, 4 minute camera shot opens up following a car on a highway. The shot is enormously long, and it you feel impatient what is going to happen next. It seems repetitive and irritating because nothing happens. You soon realize its a film you ultimately surrender yourself to, and that film is "Gerry."The latest absorbing idea from filmmaker Gus Van Sant (Drugstore Cowboy, Good Will Hunting) along with a colaboration with co-writters Matt Daman & Casey Affleck, which crafts a film that requires mentality, art appreciation, discussion, and most of all patience.

"Gerry" is a film that asks a lot from the viewer, and it follows the typical cliche "not for everyone", and while viewing this film you must explore new viewing habits. After premiering at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, it was proclaimed by legendary film critic Roger Ebert as "the most perplexing, discussed, hated, and defended film at Sundance". When he stated that, I knew what to expect from this film, as I hope you know what to expect from this work of art.

As the film opens up, of course with the long beautiful shot of the camera following car, continues to another long shot of two close friends played by Cassey Affleck and Matt Damon. We know nothing about these guys, other then they appear to go on an unknown hiking trip in the hot desert. The leave their car, and off they go hiking out in the wilderness, and they nickname each other Gerry. Having wandered off the trail on their way to some attraction, at first the two road-trippers they don't seem too concerned about their predicament.

They walk with purpose and almost enjoy the adventure, even making light when Affleck scrambles up a rock outcropping to scout the area and can't find his way back down. As Damon rakes the ground with his foot to build a feeble "dirt mattress" to break his friend's fall, they snicker and bicker and troubleshoot the situation, debating the odds of a broken ankle if he jumps. But over several days of wandering through the dreadful desert the pals gradually become dispirited, dehydrated ghosts of their former selves, slowly, weakly, silently shuffling across, never-ending expanses of hard white sand.

Single shots last several curiously engrossing minutes at a stretch, sometimes depicting modestly funny escapades (the rock incident), sometimes depicting offhand conversation (to break up the tedium, Affleck tells Damon the story of his victory in a long-format video game), and sometimes quietly capturing the unspoken fear and frustration as the men trudge blindly along, not even knowing why they're doing it anymore. The movie's longest, most silent and most uneventful scene is also its most beautiful and fascinating. It's a shot that begins in the near blackness of dawn, following the crestfallen men from several yards behind as they stagger, only out of habit, through a seemingly vast empty lake bed into the rising sun.

There alone, you know you are watching a piece of art. "Gerry" is challenging, awkward, experimental, form of filmmaking. If indeed feels exhausting, but relaxing watching long camera shots, after shots, but Van Sant is trying to capture the audiences moods with the characters moods. That is what art does, it absorbs our minds, makes us feel things. "Gerry" brings in new honesty that art can overpower entertainment. Imagine watching a mainstream film, that had two men stranded out in the desert? It wouldn't compare to Van Sants film

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Morvern Callar (2002)

9/10

A Different Approach at Grief!!

9 February 2003

Rating ***.5 out of ****

"Morvern Callar" is a movie that works like music, because it works on mood and emotions. In fact, the film uses music to make a signiffiant difference on the emotions of the heroin with the title name that is prounounced 'Moven Calla' is feeling. Scottish filmmaker Ramsay writes, and directs her sophmore follow-up to "Ratcatcher" based on the novel of the same name by Alan Warner.

The film opens up in a bizzare way as Morvern(played Brilliantly by Samanha Morton-"Minority Report", "Sweet & Lowdown) wakes from what appears to be a drunk. The person is underneath a Christmas tree, only to find it to be her boyfriend. A computer in the room reads "Dear Morvern," "Don't try to understand. It seemed the best thing to do." It's a goodbye note from her boyfriend, who is lying on the floor with his wrists slashed. Morvern doesn't cry; she just takes a bath and prepares for a night on the town, leaving her dead boyfriend uncovered on the floor.

While she is out that night, Morvern is confused and conflicted on how she feels. Ramsay may suggest that Morvern is agitated on why her boyfriend killed herself, which leads to sleeping around, drinking, and taking drugs in a night to get over the grief. That is where the provactive idea of the film occurs, to suggest how people react to tragedies, and obstacles differently then others. She even takes her bf's death for granted, by sending the manuscript of a novel in which her boyfriend worked for ages, only to take credit for it, and to sell the book. She even uses the money he left for his funeral to book a vacation at a Spain beach resort for herself and her best friend Lana.

They set out to Spain, and its a journey of life. She finds different ways to overcome, and challenge her emotions. The movie is drenched in sadness, but yet never preachy. . The largest rave of this wonder film is , the Scottish director Ramsey how she captrues her characters' emotions in unusually original and expressive images. This is a challeging, but at times moving film that is different then any other film that would take advantage of such material.

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Gangs of New York (2002)

10/10

Gangs of New York-A Complete Triumph!!

9 February 2003

Gangs of New York Rating **** Out of ****!!

Forget all those film critics out their somewhat bashing Scorese's new Epic historical crime saga saying its not worth the wait. This film is worth the wait. Just because critics like to compare this film with Scorsese's prevous works, it's not fair. It's Passionate, lurid, graphic, and bloody as sunday, Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" peers deeply into the side of American history poisoned by ethnic and racial hatred. The sprawling, bare-knuckled drama takes place in a squalid quarter known as Five Corners where people lived in desperate poverty, brute force was the law and battle-ready gangs ruled the streets.

The most ferocious is Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), a native-born American who uses his criminal syndicate to oppress and exploit the immigrants he despises. He rankles most over the ever-growing ranks of Irish Catholics, including the gang leader Priest (Liam Neeson), who dies in a brawl while his son watches. On one level, the movie is the personal story of that son as a grown man. After years in an orphanage, now calling himself Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio), he returns to extract revenge. To get close, he joins Bill's gang, but finds himself seduced by the magnetism of Bill's power ,and by a pretty pickpocket named Jenny (Cameron Diaz).

Scorsese's more urgent interest is in the tumultuous, tragic history that is the backdrop to Amsterdam's story. While the people of Five Corners deal with gangs, corrupt politicians and poverty, the Civil War is raging. Immigrants are being conscripted by the thousands, while the affluent can buy their way out of the draft with $300. Scorsese summarizes the immigrant plight in a superb, uncut shot of new arrivals stepping off the boat into the arms of military officials who hand them citizenship papers and uniforms, then march them straight onto a transport ship as battlefield coffins are unloaded alongside them. Resentment over this system climaxed with the New York draft riots, a murderous, four-day rampage that left more than 100 people dead.

Scorsese depicts the riots in graphic, punishing detail. This kind of violence is hard to watch, indeed, but the director's aim is not mere sensation. He is making a fierce demand on the audience to understand the savage fury that attended the nation's long, tortured birth. "Gangs of New York" is a stunning visual spectacle,a complete triumph.

Scorsese spares no grim detail in painting a portrait of the degradation in Five Corners invoked by history, imagination and urban folklore. Nor does Scorsese neglect to invoke the power of religion, one of his signature themes. For instance, when the gangs are preparing for their final showdown, we see leaders of both sides fervently invoke God's favor.Such moments define "Gangs of New York", a work of harsh and fearless artistry from a master at the top of his form.

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Talk to Her (2002)

10/10

Talk to Her-Almodovar goes left field-with tragedy and emotion in brilliant fashion!!

3 February 2003

Rating **** out of ****

Spanish Writer-Director Pedro Almodovar is a filmmaker that always captures strange, and honest moments within his characters emotions-especially women. Such films as "All About My Mother", and "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" support this, but in Almodovar's latest film "Talk To Her"--he does something a little different by making men the protagasnits. It's brilliant, unique, and creative filmmaking at its best. However beneath all the brilliance is a lovely, sweet film that is charming in its own little way.

Almodovar crafts "Talk to Her" with a style that is unique in color and tone, and it has behavioral exposition that is far more mature and tonally sustained than anything he's done before. But the plot is insane as anything that Almodovar's has done before, which makes the movie more of a career-peak change, its a masterpiece constructed on the solid foundation of everything he's previously tried and learned. The movie's great, bad-boy conceit is that its two heroes, wounded-in-love journalist Marco (Dario Grandinetti) and naive nurse Benigno (Javier Camara), are hopelessly in love with women they can't communicate with -- and that really gives the two guys something to talk about, as well as a base for the strongest of friendships. Not that their women are intentionally unreachable; both, you see, are in comas.

By the end of this crazy, heart-thrilling tale, Almodovar has delivered us through un unexpecting film of humor, human emotions, specific human connections, remorse, and philosophies. "Talk to Her" is more than just a run of a talked about foreign film, and having Oscar-Nomination potential-it is one of the best movies of 2002.

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Far from Heaven (2002)

10/10

One of the Year's Best!!

12 December 2002

To sketch the background and temperament life of the 1950's decade is a melancholy cliche. We think of the extortionary life, with the husband going to work, with the house wife raising the kids and cooking the meals. We think of the pitch-perfect life, with very few worries, because it was the decade after World War II, the boom generation was starting, and the economy was in a rising state. We receive this hint from 50's entertainment, and even films that are released now, in which the setting is in the 50's we receive that impression(hence "Pleasentville"). In the 50's entertainment movies avoided conflicting dilemmas such as racism, and homosexuality. So even in present day we don't credence the dilemmas occurring in that decade.

With "Far From Heaven", writer-director Todd Haynes that has directed other controversial topics such as environmental illness in the 1995 dramatic film "Safe" returns honor to the genre, in a glossy tribute to "All That Heaven Allows", a 1955 film from Douglas Sirk(Premier Magazine November Issue), is a master of the mid-century domestic-crisis movie. As supposedly like the older movie, Set in Hartford, Conn 1957 "Far From Heaven" centers on a "perfect" housewife, Cathy Whitaker (Julianne Moore), whose life revolves around her rising-executive husband Frank (Dennis Quaid), her children, her spotless home and her fashion suburban neighborhood. For all her efforts, Cathy's marriage is not quite right. When she finds out why, her wonderful world suddenly turns into a minefield. Desperately isolated, she turns for sympathy to Raymond Deagan (Dennis Haysbert), the wise, kindhearted black man who tends her yard. Their innocent friendship so profoundly violates community standards that her friends respond with ferocious cruelty.

Haynes avoids any hint of the lurid in his handling of the story, which he frames in a lush, extravagantly detailed version of mid-century, middle-class style. Sets and costumes in "Far From Heaven" are nearly as important as the characters, so good that production designer are guaranteed Oscar contenders. Haynes presents both characters and plot with tender regard for the humanity cloaked in all those sarcasm-worthy clothes. These characters are not pathetic or absurd. They are in pain, and they hide their emotions like real people.

Haynes also collaborators with the actors, who turn in beautifully well convincing performances. Haysbert amplifies his already solid reputation for fine nuance in the role of a man who knows better than the more powerful people around him, on how to define the difference between right and wrong.Quaid gives a haunting performance with the tension of masking, explosive dark secret. And the biggest complement goes to Julianne Moore, she ultimately carries the movie, fairly shimmering with purity and strong emotion, this is the female performance of the year!!!

"Far From Heaven" is the years most moving film, it covers a lot off melodramatic touches. It's a daring film, that is not afraid to express the distinctions, and dilemmas that we chose not to look in life. Don't be surprised if "Far From Heaven" earns Oscars nominations in numerous categories. While watching the film you make ask yourself, why does it feel so exaggerated? Despite us being three generations ahead of that time, just keep the reminder that Todd Haynes purposely crafted this film with the same style of a 1950's melodrama of Douglas Sirk.

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Solaris (2002)

10/10

Finally a Better remake!!

9 December 2002

Like the mesmerizing music that breaks out occasionally in Steven Soderbergh's rare and beautiful "Solaris", the movie is a mixture of chilliness and warmth. It keeps you at arm's length even as it gets you closer. This is uplifting frustrating science fiction, nearer to "2001: A Space Odyssey" than to "Star Wars." It's also a love story, but not a sappy one because the romance is more metaphysical then oppose to sappy. It's a psychological drama about love and death, reality and dreams.

Based on Polish writer Stanislaw Lem's philosophical 1961 novel, and a remake from the 1972 Andrei Tarkovsky's film. "Solaris" is a hypnotic mind twister, a meditation on the nature of being and humanity.

Steve Soderbergh wrote, directed, photographed and edited "Solaris", altering Lem's story to focus more on the romantic relationship. He shows us in flashbacks how Kelvin and Rheya met and fell in love and the events leading to her death. These are the warm elements of an ultimately chilly tale. Soderbergh makes the opening scenes loo crisp, cool and evocative in a way that reminds us of a Stanley Kubrick film. "Solaris" easily ranks in with Soderbergh's finer works such as "Traffic", "Out of Sight", and "Sex, Lies, & Videotape", and is just as experimental as "Full Frontal" but more essential!!"

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MulhollandRob

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