Change Your Image
richardv-johnson
Reviews
Frau im Mond (1929)
Not exactly Metropolis
Not quite awful, but extremely slow and melodramatic in the worst sense. For anyone expecting something like Metropolis, with the same director and writer, forget about it. I feel like I just wasted 3 hours to learn little or nothing. Surprised so many liked it. I'm generally good for anything science fiction but at the moment I'd rather see Zsa Zsa as the Queen of Venus than this (not available, unfortunately). I don't applaud Filmstruck for making this available to waste my precious time. Music was execrable, which didn't help. A few technological points for multistage rockets. A few extreme negative scientific points for, like, not knowing that the Moon doesn't have a breathable atmosphere. And that, for sure, was certainly known in 1929.
The Man in the High Castle (2015)
So different from the book, but so well done it doesn't matter
I could write a book about the differences between 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' and 'Blade Runner' but they're minor compared to the differences here. Half the characters of the series are not in the book, likewise most of the plot. However, the series succeeds on its own terms - great acting, cinematography, set and costume design. The new characters are compelling, especially Rufus Sewell's portrayal of Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith. I have a strong feeling Philip K. Dick would have liked this series... And Mr. Tagomi and Juliana are just as I've always imagined them through 6 or 7 readings of the book. Special praise for the music, both the original music and the use of American pop songs throughout (notably Ella Fitzgerald's 'Summertime' at a particularly gruesome point).
Hundstage (2001)
say it ain't so, Ulrich
Oh my, from the box description I thought it would be LA-crazy like 2 Days in the Valley or Hugo Pool. Ulrich Seidl must be a very strong man. Most, after directing this, would have driven off a cliff or at least committed a mass murder. I confess to only watching the first half hour (for now). Reading all the comments here, I have a lot to look forward to. Professional reviews often mention the Swedish film Songs from the Second Floor as a parallel but that's graced with humor and fantasy and this is unrelenting in its dour realism. What hath the Marshall Plan and the EU wrought? Seeing this in a theater with anyone I know would have only resulted in an enforced departure after many fewer minutes than I got through on DVD. There's a more annoying creature in the universe than Jar Jar Binks - the Hitchhiker from Hell. Whatever happens to her, it isn't enough! Soulless suburbia that I thought only existed in Arizona and Florida thrives in Lower Austria. Oh no! I thought sex clubs had ceased to exist even in New York and San Francisco, and here they are in suburban shopping malls? Was it Mahatma Gandhi or Jawaharlal Nehru who said when asked about Western Civilization, 'why that might be a nice idea'? If the world were truly like this film, bring on that black hole, we're ready.
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
inescapable perfection
There couldn't be a more perfect adaptation of a short story than this. Annie Proulx said seeing the film made her feel like she needed an exorcist. What's missing is a few snippets of graphic sexuality which no one would complain about, and a few moments of self-awareness that give Ennis and Jack just a little more depth in the story. The only problem I have is with what's added - the emphasis on the unloved women. That's very small in the story, very big in the movie. Viewed from the women's point of view, this becomes like a Carson McCullers tale where everyone loves what they can't have (Reflections in a Golden Eye with Marlon Brando lusting after Robert Forster lusting after Elizabeth Taylor having an affair with Brian Keith married to Julie Harris who seems to care only for the fey Filipino houseboy). But Ennis and Jack aren't totally denied happiness, it's just restricted. And Alma and Lureen seem like ladies who can take care of themselves.
Mysterious Skin (2004)
bravely honest, disturbing yet uplifting
No film I've read about here has received so many well-written and positive comments, and it's all deserved. Gregg Araki has grown from the nihilistic irony of The Doom Generation via the sugary fantasy of Splendor into a wise and sensitive artist. How can great art come from such dreadful things? Maybe we should ask Aeschylus or Balzac or Goya or Hardy. One would hope that any potential pedophile seeing this would be deterred before the crime, when the consequences are so movingly displayed. But there are other themes as well. Neil's life as a hustler is interesting in itself, realistically portrayed and not titillating at all. Johns, with David Arquette, presented similar scenes but not with a hero we cared about as much as Neil. Whore, with Theresa Russell, by Ken Russell, showed less concern for the humanity of the clients than we see here. The alien-abduction phenomenon, too - what really happened to poor Avalyn? There must be more than self-delusion behind the belief of so many people in something so clearly impossible. The performances are all outstanding. The music is just right. The portrayal of small-town Kansas and early-HIV Manhattan is perfect. Whatever Mr. Araki does next, it will not be boring.
This World, Then the Fireworks (1997)
are you blonde all over, or just where it shows?
50's noir, fabulous script: 'You're probably the first hooker in history to induce seizures and cerebral hemorrhage'. Dream cast, Gina Gershon and Billy Zane as amoral twins traumatized by seeing their father murdered in flagrante delicto by a jealous husband (across the street)during their fifth birthday party. Mom, with Happy Birthday tiara, also witnesses. Wonderful music, atmosphere. Watching Gina demolish a thug who tries to muscle into her scene at a cocktail bar and then poison his superiors (one died, one is hospitalized for life) is worth the price of admission. How did this show up on hi-def cable? A miracle, of sorts. Anyone who loves Sin City, or Pulp Fiction, will find this irresistible.
Cry-Baby (1990)
Greetin's, Granny-o
Ricki Lake has the best lines in this best of all John Waters films (Serial Mom is a close second). Without the yuck-factor of Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living (no Divine, no Edie) and also without the schmaltz of Hairspray (uncool enough to become a Broadway Musical), Cry-Baby is a brilliant and delicious tribute to early rock-n-roll. Johnny Depp's musical performance, part Elvis, part Buddy Holly, part Jerry Lee Lewis, is amazing. Amy Locane's makeover from square to drape far outdoes Olivia Newton-John's parallel transformation in Grease. Costumes and cinematography are splendid. Plenty of laugh-out-loud lines and sight gags (the epidemic of French-kissing at Turkey Creek, for example). How wonderful that Mona AKA Hatchet-Face plays raunchy saxophone in Cry-Baby's band! I may never wear that gray-and-white-striped seersucker jacket again, Alison's square boyfriend Baldwin is such a complete jerk. Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro as an evangelist, Polly Bergen as the outraged square grandmother greeted above, Iggy Pop as Cry-Baby's step-grandfather, plus Patty Hearst, Mink Stole, Troy Donahue. Best writing of any Waters film, by far.
Walk on Water (2004)
best Israeli film yet
Eytan Fox's last film, Yossi and Jagger, was technically a bit rough around the edges, at least as shown locally and on DVD. But it had wonderful acting by charismatic Israeli actors, and was directed with great sensitivity. Walk on Water adds to these virtues a mastery of film technique: cinematography, editing, and integration of music which would be striking in any European or American (including Latin American) film. Any reference to plot would be detrimental to each person's perception of the characters' changes and revelations, so to be very general, there is humor, warmth, humanity, and redemption to spare. And contrary to some of the comments here, no political preaching. The moral ambiguities are quite successfully held in suspension and balance.
Der Untergang (2004)
Devastating, necessary, and very brave
A highlight of the Russian art exhibit at the Guggenheim is a propaganda picture of Stalin and other Soviet leaders (some, like Bukharin, about to be purged) smiling and greeting an exemplary worker. It's very large and somehow comic and shocking at the same time. It's very hard to imagine a picture of Hitler and the Nazi elite ever being displayed like that, even 100 years from now. Possibly Stalin and Mao were responsible for more deaths than Hitler, certainly of their own people, and they were no less insane, especially in their final years. Maybe because they died still in power, they've never been dramatized as Hitler has been so many times. The Alec Guiness Last 10 Days of Hitler covered much the same ground as Der Untergang, but Bruno Ganz has outdone any previous portrayals. This film is relentless in making the audience experience life in the bunker and also in the streets of Berlin above. Josef and Magda Goebbels have never been so real and frightening. Eva Braun has never seemed so frantic and pathetic. It took great courage for German filmmakers to approach this subject so honestly. Ironically, while war-torn Warsaw in The Pianist was recreated on a Berlin sound-stage, it appears from the final credits that the Berlin of Der Untergang was shot in St. Petersburg. This is a great antidote to the Russian film Moloch, made at Berchtesgaden, which made the Nazis clowns instead of monsters. Stupid and banal they were, but not funny. Charles Chaplin said that if he had known about the death camps he would have never made The Great Dictator. There is no comic relief, nor any tragic dignity either, in this harrowing and graphic account of the end of an evil tyranny.
Brave New World (1998)
fair representation of Huxley's ideas
Low-budget and made for TV, yes, but also perfect casting and good sets and costumes. Lenina's resemblance to Anna Karina in Alphaville can't be accidental. Compared with the low-rent mall interiors of THX1138 and Logan's Run it looks luxurious. The better you know the book the more interesting it will be. BNW is hardly a literary classic, rather a socio-political essay like 1984. Huxley foresaw so much so early - in 1932 there were only two totalitarian states, Soviet Russia and Fascist Italy, neither especially consumerist. A few of Huxley's ideas are missing from the film, notably the deification of Henry Ford and the prevalence of cloning. But there are few missteps compared with most adaptations, just a hokey ending, the deranged Delta assassin subplot, and making Linda an outsider instead of a misplaced 'civilized' person. The slogans are straight from the book, even the song lyrics. Fortunately the 20th century demonstrated that neither totalitarian propaganda nor relentless advertising can really get people to believe lies for long. But in most ways the real world has turned out worse than BNW - Huxley predicted the pornography of sex but not the pornography of violence, Betas (or worse) are running things, not Alphas, and every attempt at Soma (ecstasy, Valium) has turned out to have a dark side.
XX/XY (2002)
Closer with less glamor and more grit
From many comments about this film and the similar Closer, one would think all the characters were reckless libertine hedonists. They're not, they're unsuccessful serial monogamists like most of us in the modern western world. This one doesn't have the Oscar Wilde/Noel Coward wit or shocking vulgarity of Closer, but it does have amazing true-to-life performances, especially from Petra Wright (who has an aristocratic beauty similar to Mimi Rogers in Someone to Watch Over Me), Kathleen Robertson, who previously had a field day as an innocent bigamist in Gregg Araki's Splendor, Maya Strange (not Strange), who displays a vulnerability much like Natasha Gregson Wagner in some other independent films (what happened to her?). And of course Mark Ruffalo, an undecided everyman for our times, like the dog in Aesop who loses his bone because he thinks he sees a better one. And as someone remarked, this is definitely Eric Rohmer territory. Excellent writing, cinematography, and use of music, and not one redundant line or wasted shot.