Tim Burton

Wes Anderson

Please forgive my quietness, I was getting over some sort of flu nastiness at the time. Also for some reason it was difficult to find high-quality footage on this one.

Terry Gilliam

Spoiler alert: the overarching theme is wonderment. Not sure if I made that clear.

More to come!

 

Watch the Auteur Series introduction here!

Coming Soon!

These videos are intended to be short, sweet, and to the point. Feedback is always welcome – I only hope to have more time in the future to put up more stuff, like reviews and things.

It’s an idea.

The Male Gaze Wide Shut

…Or using feminist theory to defend the work of Stanley Kubrick.

This is my thesis, to sum up everything I’ve done in college.  I plan on making more videos like this, so please feel free to send me feedback.

Killer Joe, Revisited

You may not know of this fellow, but you should. He’s Brad Jones, the Cinema Snob, and I tend to value his opinion, even if I don’t always agree.  He recently released his list of his favorite films of last year, one of which was Killer Joe.

http://blip.tv/the-cinema-snob/the-best-films-of-2012-6494699

I honestly didn’t know much about this film, but once Brad brought it up I was curious (even if it was #8), especially after we received a ton of copies of this movie at work – a movie supposedly rated NC-17 – that’s a rarity for Blockbuster. I just finished this film, and I gotta say, it’s something.

Finger-lickin’ good.

Matthew McConaughey plays a hired killer contacted by Chris (Emile Hirsch), who teams up with his family to kill his mother to collect her insurance money. There’s a snag and all hell breaks loose – you get the picture.  And Emile Hirsch gets his face smashed in with a can of pumpkin pie filling.

Killer Joe is probably one of the more demented American films I’ve seen in a while – something that breeds southern charm with raw grit, giving us a story of murder and family ties most unusual.  And I’ll agree with Brad here, Joe deserves the NC-17.

What makes this film so remarkable, other than its brutal content, is the performances.  I never thought I’d say this, but Matthew McConaughey gives a terrifyingly intense performance. And then there’s Thomas Hayden Church – his performance was so oddly real –  he served as a great comic relief that wasn’t too distracting. He was just a dumb kind of guy – a real good ol’ boy.

Overall, I think Killer Joe, or as I like to call it, Redneck Fargo, deserves a higher spot on the list – or is at least worth checking out.

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, things have been crazy-busy at my end, which means very little time for Oscars, let alone hitting up the theatres for that matter. On the upside, I have been a busy little bee plowing away at my thesis, which is a video essay sure to appear later. In the meantime, I thank you for your patience, and I hope to have more stuff up soon.

WYSHW: Moon

I was originally under the impression that a grand majority of people have seen this movie being that though it was a more independent release, it still received high regards from critics and the like.  Alas, like many assumptions I have been proven wrong, so I thought I’d share the love from this trippy little opus from newcomer director Duncan Jones.

His father would be proud.

Now for a movie like this, a simple synopsis from yours truly would not do you folks justice, so if you haven’t seen it, here’s the trailer.  Take it all in.

This man deserves more props.

I love this trailer.  It’s perfect.  It’s shrouded in enough mystery to get you interested – especially because the premise is just so bizarre.  What’s even better is that the film itself does not let you down.  You as the viewer are given enough time to connect with Sam and empathize with his predicament.  My only complaint is how nonchalant he is when he finds the other Sam.  Granted, Sam has had enough time to himself he probably learned to cope with more bizarre happenings to the point of being desensitized.  Or perhaps his desensitization is a result of his extreme isolation.  Either way, it’s an easy complaint to shrug off.

Moon is one of those movies you simply have to see to believe.  It’s masterfully shot, well-written and edited, and Sam Rockwell gives a breathtaking performance.  Just check out the scene where he plays ping-pong with himself – it’s pretty impressive.

Next time on What You Should Have Watched, we went to the moon so now it’s time to check out the sun.

WYSHW: The Fall

Tarsem Singh has received a lot of guff for his work – lest we forget Nostalgia Critic’s annihilation of The Cell (perhaps a tad too harsh, but that’s for another day) – granted, he hasn’t made many films, but I’ve noticed that they’ve either been notably shallow or tries too hard to be deep.  I feel that The Fall is an exception.  On the surface, the film does appear to be a pretentious work, but that’s merely on the surface.  The Fall tells us a story about…well, stories – both spoken and seen – and the power they have to reveal to us the truth of the human condition.  Because this story is so involved, I’m going to break this one down – and yes, there are spoilers.

The Introduction

I could see how people could find an introduction like this a little daunting.  No, the whole movie’s not like this – this just sets the scene, providing the origin of our main character’s demise while being a homage to the film industry, which appears more-so at the end.  This shouldn’t throw you off-guard too much, this intro is merely for you to sit back and take in.

Alexandria and Roy

After the intro we fade to “California, Once Upon A Time,” presumably the 1930s.  Here we meet our main character, Alexandria (amateur actress Catinca Untaru) who is hospitalized with a broken arm.  It isn’t before too long that she meets the hospital’s newest patient, Roy (Lee Pace of Pushing Daisies fame), a bed-ridden stuntman.  Roy isn’t really doing too hot – after paralyzing himself doing a stunt, he has learned that his girlfriend left him for the start of the picture he was working on.  After meeting Alexandria, he whips up a scheme to relieve his suffering, regardless of the consequences.

“Are you trying to save my soul?”

What I enjoyed most about these characters is the chemistry between them – most of which was based on misunderstanding, which in retrospect is quite charming.  For one, Catinca actually believed that Lee was a paraplegic, which allowed a much more sympathetic delivery on her part.  Secondly, much of their dialogue was improvised, so the smallest of comments became crucial to the details – such as Alexandria misreading the letter E for the number 3, or the idea of ones’ strength being in their teeth.

The Epic

The concept Roy spinning an “Epic” is similar to the tale of Scheherazade, only instead to keep his life, Roy intends to end his.  He starts a tale of a motley crew consisting of an Indian, an Italian demolitions expert, Charles Darwin, an ex-slave, a mystic, and a Masked Bandit.  All they have in common is a hatred for Governor Odious, a tyrant who does nasty things for the sake of being nasty.  I don’t mean to sound cheesy here, but there really is something magical about this story.  It seamlessly weaves together the lives of a pair of strangers, with Roy’s experience and Alexandria’s imagination, which makes the climax so much more profound, visually and emotionally.

I cry every time.

I’m just going to say it: The Fall is a truly beautiful film.  I know I didn’t go into the unfathomable beauty of the visuals, but seriously, words cannot describe.  Despite the surreality of this movie, no special effects were used – it was shot in 28 countries over the course of four years.  The story itself strives on the idea of stories as a powerful medium – they tell us how to live and why – not to mention, they bring strangers together despite the odds.

This tradition carries on through generations to come through the power of movie-making.  As mentioned, the intro is somewhat a homage to the film industry, and then the movie ends with a montage of some of the most impressive stunts from the silent era.  One could say this was a self-absorbed move on Tarsem’s part, but it gives one time to think about the sweat, blood and tears that went into films back then – and how much has never been seen.  It’s a thought anyway.

Next time on What You Should Have Watched, a love story everyone should see.  I’m serious.