review: Libeld Lady

After watching 'Apocolypse Now' I needed a comedy - and something that didn't need you to think too much.
I got what I wanted.
This movie is not spectacular, but it is fun. All the aspects in it work well together, but they are not noticable. I mean, you just coast through the film. I imagine that this is not a very memorable movie.
It's screwball madcap comedy with 4 big named stars. William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow. You can't go wrong.
So, for silly entertainment that is actually good, it is highly recommended.
3 out of 5 stars

review: Apocolypse Now

I just finished watching "Act One" of the movie. Normally I would wait until the movie is over to start the review - but this movie is so intense that I need to write a bit now.
Basic Plot: Francis Ford Coppola directs the story of Captain Williard (Martin Sheen), who is in Special Forces in Vietnam and has gotten another mission. Find and destroy Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has apparently gone off the deep end.
The entire first half of the movie is about getting there. It's like a road tour of Vietnam fighting forces.
This movie is a prime example of why the Vietnam War is seen as the worst thing to happen to America. It is so powerful! You learn that Williard is just no good at being a civilian anymore after his first "tour" in Vietnam, and now he is back in Saigon just waiting for a mission. He gets one, and all the while we are learning as he is learning about Kurtz. Why he is a hunted man. But the journey is interesting. A small boat has been assigned to take him to Kurtz's general location. But they (the boat crew) don't know where they are going. It's an interesting group. The two most powerful moments thus far have to do with them. The first being a run-in with a tiger, and how it unnerves one of the crew - a saucier from New Orleans. He just freaks out a bit and you hear him scream: "I just wanna be a chef!" And it makes you think about how people innocent people get into wars like this. Dragged in - but they go, and they do their "duty" - and it destroys them.
The next most powerful moment is when they stop a fishing boat to check for enemy supplies. While searching the boat, a woman starts to run towards the saucier when he reaches for a yellow basket. Assuming the worst, and getting a little trigger happy, the gunner on the boat (a 17 year old kid from NY) starts shooting it up. Everyone on board is killed. What was the woman protecting? A puppy. So, that whole crew was innocent, and they were killed for nothing.
Another amazing part is the whole Calvary sequence. Robert Duvall is ... unexpected. "The small of Napalm in the morning" Didn't know that was from this movie. The use of Wagner is also pretty effective. You'll have to watch it to know what I mean.
Anyways, on to the next half.
...
okay. WTF? I can tell you the action, but I can't describe the story. You meet Kurtz, and those who follow him. The thing I don't get is what happened to him. I know what started it, but what actually happened. And what happened to all those people with him. The soldiers. They are in this near catatonic state - but what got them there? How did that happen? The thing I take most from it is that war destroyed their minds, their souls, and theirselves. Whether that is right or not, I can not tell you.
What I can tell you is this: This movie deserves to be a classic. I know this partly because it is so over my head, I also know this because it is wonderful. I mean, its not my cup of tea, but it is amazing.
The acting is outstanding. I'll leave it there. That is all I can say about it without repeating myself or using a hundred antonyms for it.
The artistic design of the movie is hard core. Not beautiful, but there is a beauty in it.
Cinematography is FANTASTIC. Some of the shots are so powerful.
Critically, it was nominated for more awards than I dare cover. It won Best Cinematography and Best Sound at teh Oscars. It is listed on AFI's Top 100 (both lists #27, then #30) as well as the napalm quote being honored as #12 in the Top 100 Quotes.
It's not my kind of thing, but I completely respect this movie.
4 out of 5 stars

review: The Libertine

This is one of the ugliest films I have ever seen.
I mean that as a compliment.
The opening line of the monolougue stands for the entire film. By the way, the opening and closing of the film is ... perfect. For a movie that centers a lot of its plot around the theatre, it is a perfect thought to have a prolougue and an epilougue. Not to mention, that they are delievered flawlessly by Johnny Depp.
The story is about the last great leg of the short life of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (Depp). He was ... unconventional. This tells the tale of his meeting Elizabeth Barry (Samantha Morton), the play he wrote for King Charles II (John Malkovich), and his subsequent downfall.
This movie is steeped in mud, piss, rain, fog, candles, sex, and theater. That about sums it up, except to say that it is brilliantly seeped in those things. I think this movie is to be a guilty pleasure. It is full of the debauchery that I usualy really dislike in films - but this movie needs it.
Like I said, it is not a beautiful film. I encourage the young to see it as part of a sex-ed class. Kinda of a warning. Compliment to the make-up crew of this film - Rochester with syphillis is a disgusting sight.
But for all of it's vices, there are just as many virtues. You don't feel as though you are watching a costume drama. This movie is so real, it's disturbing. The acting is fantastic, the direction and cinematography is key, and the artistic design is so perfectly done. Oh, and the writing. Oh yes, the writing. This movie has some of the most intricate and witty writing. A perfect reflection of the wit of the Restoration period. People don't think that the past is as steeped in sex as we are now, but the Restoration was marinaded in sex. Overt, yes, and certainly grotesque.
Of course, my very favorite parts were in the theatre. What I wouldn't give to step on to a stage like that. What was most drawing to me was Rochester's admirtation for the theatre, which is interesting because he likes nothing else - not even the whores and wine he is so fond of. He carries a distaste for almost everything he does with him. Both the character and the actor. Depp is once again, fascinating in his role. A perfect measure of sex, disgust, wit, honesty, and treachery. As he says in the opening, you do not like him, but you, like everyone else, can not help but be fascinated by him - you can't look away.
Malkovich is as interesting as he is in all of his roles. Again, like Depp, here is an actor of great variety. I haven't seen a lot of his works, but what I have seen I admire, if I do not like. He doesn't always play the likeable character, in fact, usually the opposite. His characters usually seem hard, but somehow endearing... no, endearing is the wrong word, but I can't think of what I mean, so you get the just of the idea. Morton is perfectly apt for the role. I don't know what to think of her as an actress. Something tells me that I have seen her in something before, but I can't place it. She is fitting to the role without being extraordinary. It could also be that I am blinded to her by her character, because I REALLY did not like her character. As much as she loves the theatre, and is good; she is also a selfish artist who wants nothing but her fame, and she is also a traitor, although not a very successful one. The one person that really caught my eye was the person who played Rochester's wife (Rosamund Pike). Later I realized that she was in the new Pride and Prejudice movie. She was quite powerful - but again, I might have been mostly taken by her character. Small though the role is, the character is one of the few "good" things in the story. And her devotion (despite her hatred of her husband's vices) for her husband is so touching (and a little raunchy, considering their beginning).
All in all, I praise the film, but it really isn't my type of thing. Again, brilliant, but ugly.
3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars

review: Ed Wood

A movie about the worst director of all time. Directed by the most eccentric director of our time, starring one of the most eclectic movie stars of our time, as well as a really interesting ensemble.
You can't go too far wrong actually.
I really like this movie. The acting is pretty darn good (except for the acting that is supposed to be bad). Depp is again, a completely unique character. He is totally commited and perfectly wonderful. Corky, odd, and endearing all at the same time. I guess I like him the most because I can see so much of in the character. He genuinely loves what he does. It doesn't matter that things don't always go as planned or that there's no money. He does what he likes and he makes films that he likes. No matter how bad everyone might say they are. He is content. And I love that about the character. It's kinda how I think many people feel. I mean, I think in terms of theatre, so this is a little different. But there are a million little companies putting perfectly hideous plays, but they're working hard and they are having fun, and that really is all their purpose. Sometimes it is hard to remember that in a time when we get so judgemental and critical about everything. OKay, that was a complete aside, but I think it is a thing worth mentioning.
Landau (as Bela Lugosi) is FANTASTIC! I'm not kidding, I was enthralled by his portrayal of the aging star. He is not a copy of Lugosi, but it is a great imitation. Especially the accent. Oh my gosh, he's just amazing! He also brings the power of Lugosi to life. If you have seen any of his work, you know - he is a classic trained actor, and he has such power in his speech. It has become iconicly corny, but seeing the original do it, it looses corny and becomes genius. Landau captures that. He also shows the side no one ever saw on film, including his addiction and his struggle.
Bill Murray (as Bunny) is something I wish I would have seen more of. I love Murray in this bit parts because he is fantastic in them. A little bit off the movie topic, but I have to include this: In Bunny's obituary in the paper he was quoted as saying "I was a little bit wild when I was young, darling, but I lived my life grandly" Isn't that gorgeous?
Everyone else is just fine. Sarah Jessica Parker and Patricia Arquette are wonderful as Wood's love interests. Parker is delightfully bad in her "bad acting" moments, but there is an interesting tug between her real life portrayals. At times, she seems like a stereotypical 50s housewifey, with just as much fake enthusiasm, but then you turn around as she becomes more and more irritated with Wood and his escapades, and she has this amazing break scene in the meat packing plant. So, I don't know if that was direction, or if she really wanted to be that way, or if it was the character putting on the act as well as she could, and then losing it with her patience.
Art wise, the B&W of the film is just perfect. It helps lend a classic horror and nostalgia to the film. I don't know how accurate the portrayal of the movies in the film are, but I'm okay with not knowing that. I love it. The costumes are wonderful, the sets are amazing, and there is a wonderful quality to a film that is all about bad quality films.
3 and 1/2 out of 5 stars

reveiw: Annie Hall

This movie was kinda "just so"
Don't get me wrong, I liked it. It is something everyone should at least see once. Woody Allen is a bit of a genius with his kind of comedy. I couldn't watch him do stand-up or anything like that, but I love his sense of humor - especially when he steps out of reality. This movie certainly has a lot of names in it. Even a brief encounter with Christopher Walken. His role is hilarious.
It's relationships and how they work and how they don't and a really welcome to our times kind of feeling. Have you ever noticed that relationships get more and more complicated as time goes on? Nothing ever seems to work out well in modern movies. I usually hate that, but this is an exception. I don't mind it at all in this film. The ending is brilliant, and for a comedy, it has a wonderful serious tone. The song "Seems Like Old Times" is a bit of a gem, and there are several exchanges and scenes in there that are just laugh out loud hilarious.
Apparently, this movie started out to be a murder mystery, but was turned into a romantic comedy. Hmmmm. There are several other production notes that are of interest. Read about it on wikipedia - it's just as zany as the movie is.
It won Oscars for Leading Actress (Keaton), Writing, Picture, and Director (Allen), although he did not win for Best Actor. AFI also honored this movie a lot. It is on both of the Top 100 lists. It is also #4 in the 100 Laughs list, #11 in the 100 Romances list, the song "Seems Like Old Times" is #90 in Top 100 Songs, the "La-dee-da, La-dee-da" was ranked #55 in the list of Top Quotes, and was #2 in the Top 10 Romantic Comedies.
So, it's earned it's status, but for me it was just so. A good so, but just so.
3 out of 5 stars