Hulavuta
keeps the varmints on the run
Here are a few films I've seen recently. Sorry I don't do stars or anything; I don't really think in terms of grading or number values so these are just straight opinions.
Macbeth (2015)
This is the one with Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, and David Thewliss as Duncan. I was interested in this one when it came out, but didn't end up seeing it since it happened to come out in the same month as The Force Awakens. But I ended up taking a Shakespeare class this semester and thought it would be cool to finally watch it after reading the play again.
It really opened my eyes to how different it is to actually watch Shakespeare vs. just reading it on the page. Nuances in performance and actually deciding what things will look like go a really long way on the impression it wants to make. In this, it seems Macbeth is the stronger character and Lady Macbeth the weaker, which is opposite to most interpretations. Showing the battle scenes and having Michael Fassbender deliver all his lines with weariness help motivate how he is easily influenced. The play implies the Macbeths had a child who died in one line ("I have given suck, and know / How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me"), but in this they go all the way out and start the film with the funeral of the child. Adds another dimension of Lady Macbeth's role as mother being taken away from her, and her replacing it with violent ambition.
I'd say check this one out if you're already familiar with Macbeth, because it will probably be confusing if you aren't. They still use the original Shakespeare lines, so it can be hard to understand if you know nothing. The main reason to watch it will be to see how different people interpret the same text.
The Truth is in the Stars (2017)
This is just a simple documentary about Star Trek and how it influenced various artists and scientists growing up. It's really just a collection of interviews, so there isn't much to say, except if you are interested in Star Trek I recommend checking it out. It's hosted by William Shatner and the people they got for the interviews are pretty big deals too, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawkin, and Ben Stiller. Really worth a watch if you're into Star Trek or even the relationship of art and life. It focuses mainly on the original series, but the other series are mentioned here and there too.
Amadeus (1984)
Well this was one of those few movies that I just knew was "objectively good", a category in which I'd put stuff like The Silence of the Lambs, or Children of Men, or The Empire Strikes Back, or maybe Citizen Kane. Which is a different category from just "really good classic" but more like...something that is so well-regarded or influential that it has transcended the ability to be criticized? Maybe canonized would be a better word? It's hard to explain, so I'm just gonna stop here. So it's interesting that it's about Mozart, who is kind of in that boat in the musical world.
I'm a musician and student of history so of course I really liked it. I actually watched the first 40 minutes or so in 6th grade when we had a substitute teacher for band class, and I didn't really know what to make of it. Salieri's attempted suicide scared me and Mozart was a real buffoon but I liked it. It's not entirely historically accurate but I think it's a really good film. Again there isn't that much to say about it! It's like Whiplash but from the Classical era haha.
The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu) (1939)
I saw this for film history class. I enjoyed it when I saw it, but when it was explained to me, I just kinda decided it was probably the best film of all time. Classmates who had already seen it had told me it was considered one of the best films, but really that's a really broad category so I didn't put much stock in it.
I ended up checking up on this movie, and it turns out it's been hovering around #4 on the best films of all time list for a really long time now. So I'm glad it's being appreciated. Personally, I loved Citizen Kane and I loved Vertigo, but I strongly feel this one is superior. In terms of techniques, both camera techniques and storytelling techniques (and the relationship between both), it just blew me away. Especially for something done in 1939. The use of space, the realism of the constructed world, all amazing. Also made me understand the hype behind long takes (in a way that actually enhances the storytelling, not just to show off).
Psycho is the film that made me respect and appreciate classic films, but The Rules of the Game is the one that made me realize why so many people have giant boners for them.
Thank You For Smoking (2006)
Well, this movie came to my attention from The Nostalgia Critic, who did an editorial on it. I wanted to check it out for a while so I finally did. I really liked it. I really like Aaron Eckhart as an actor and he really brought likability to "the most hated man in America". There's a scene with him and Katie Holmes and I couldn't help but think how much better The Dark Knight would've been if she was still Rachel. Oh well.
The tone of this is kind of inconsistent but it's not a huge deal. The biggest issue is the cliche of the ironic echo, where a line meant to build someone up is used again to tear them down. In a movie about the power of words and public image, it works most of the time, but sometimes the execution is a little too karmic/cartoony.
I'd really recommend this one to anyone who is interested in politics, marketing, and rhetoric. They talk a lot about the power of words, how to be persuasive, etc. And I think a lot of what they say is pretty insightful.
Rashomon (1950)
Film history class again, aha. I knew the plot of this film beforehand, as well as its influence. I read vonFiedler's post about it back in 2015, and it really stuck with me. So I had that in mind as I was watching it. In a few ways, it does seem muddled. Why wouldn't they believe the lady who just got raped? But I think the film does successfully complicate it so it's not just "can a woman be trusted or not".
Having known the plot beforehand, what I was really surprised about was how...the truth actually does come out, in a way. I personally have never been a fan of ambiguous endings just because, or to make the movie seem deeper (really the only issue I have with Inception is the ending: even though it's pretty clear he is in the real world, the use of the top attempts to make it ambiguous when it isn't). But the great thing is that it's not actually that hard to synthesize the four stories together and get a general idea of what really happened, especially with the framing story of the man poking holes in certain logic. Once that's done, you see it's not really important what happened, but what each person said and how that reflects their character and human nature. And of course people will say "well duh, that's the point of the whole movie!" However, it's important that they don't just say that it is the point, and that it is actually earned.
Overall, I think this earns its title as a great movie. There are even cool things that are rarely mentioned, like a really awesome samurai swordfight when the bandit is telling his side of the story. I've always been interested in the difference between medieval Japan and medieval Europe (and how they are usually portrayed in movies vs historical record) so it was cool to see that. Lots of dodging and fake outs, and not so much of the blocking!
Macbeth (2015)
This is the one with Michael Fassbender as Macbeth, Marion Cotillard as Lady Macbeth, and David Thewliss as Duncan. I was interested in this one when it came out, but didn't end up seeing it since it happened to come out in the same month as The Force Awakens. But I ended up taking a Shakespeare class this semester and thought it would be cool to finally watch it after reading the play again.
It really opened my eyes to how different it is to actually watch Shakespeare vs. just reading it on the page. Nuances in performance and actually deciding what things will look like go a really long way on the impression it wants to make. In this, it seems Macbeth is the stronger character and Lady Macbeth the weaker, which is opposite to most interpretations. Showing the battle scenes and having Michael Fassbender deliver all his lines with weariness help motivate how he is easily influenced. The play implies the Macbeths had a child who died in one line ("I have given suck, and know / How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me"), but in this they go all the way out and start the film with the funeral of the child. Adds another dimension of Lady Macbeth's role as mother being taken away from her, and her replacing it with violent ambition.
I'd say check this one out if you're already familiar with Macbeth, because it will probably be confusing if you aren't. They still use the original Shakespeare lines, so it can be hard to understand if you know nothing. The main reason to watch it will be to see how different people interpret the same text.
The Truth is in the Stars (2017)
This is just a simple documentary about Star Trek and how it influenced various artists and scientists growing up. It's really just a collection of interviews, so there isn't much to say, except if you are interested in Star Trek I recommend checking it out. It's hosted by William Shatner and the people they got for the interviews are pretty big deals too, like Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawkin, and Ben Stiller. Really worth a watch if you're into Star Trek or even the relationship of art and life. It focuses mainly on the original series, but the other series are mentioned here and there too.
Amadeus (1984)
Well this was one of those few movies that I just knew was "objectively good", a category in which I'd put stuff like The Silence of the Lambs, or Children of Men, or The Empire Strikes Back, or maybe Citizen Kane. Which is a different category from just "really good classic" but more like...something that is so well-regarded or influential that it has transcended the ability to be criticized? Maybe canonized would be a better word? It's hard to explain, so I'm just gonna stop here. So it's interesting that it's about Mozart, who is kind of in that boat in the musical world.
I'm a musician and student of history so of course I really liked it. I actually watched the first 40 minutes or so in 6th grade when we had a substitute teacher for band class, and I didn't really know what to make of it. Salieri's attempted suicide scared me and Mozart was a real buffoon but I liked it. It's not entirely historically accurate but I think it's a really good film. Again there isn't that much to say about it! It's like Whiplash but from the Classical era haha.
The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu) (1939)
I saw this for film history class. I enjoyed it when I saw it, but when it was explained to me, I just kinda decided it was probably the best film of all time. Classmates who had already seen it had told me it was considered one of the best films, but really that's a really broad category so I didn't put much stock in it.
I ended up checking up on this movie, and it turns out it's been hovering around #4 on the best films of all time list for a really long time now. So I'm glad it's being appreciated. Personally, I loved Citizen Kane and I loved Vertigo, but I strongly feel this one is superior. In terms of techniques, both camera techniques and storytelling techniques (and the relationship between both), it just blew me away. Especially for something done in 1939. The use of space, the realism of the constructed world, all amazing. Also made me understand the hype behind long takes (in a way that actually enhances the storytelling, not just to show off).
Psycho is the film that made me respect and appreciate classic films, but The Rules of the Game is the one that made me realize why so many people have giant boners for them.
Thank You For Smoking (2006)
Well, this movie came to my attention from The Nostalgia Critic, who did an editorial on it. I wanted to check it out for a while so I finally did. I really liked it. I really like Aaron Eckhart as an actor and he really brought likability to "the most hated man in America". There's a scene with him and Katie Holmes and I couldn't help but think how much better The Dark Knight would've been if she was still Rachel. Oh well.
The tone of this is kind of inconsistent but it's not a huge deal. The biggest issue is the cliche of the ironic echo, where a line meant to build someone up is used again to tear them down. In a movie about the power of words and public image, it works most of the time, but sometimes the execution is a little too karmic/cartoony.
I'd really recommend this one to anyone who is interested in politics, marketing, and rhetoric. They talk a lot about the power of words, how to be persuasive, etc. And I think a lot of what they say is pretty insightful.
Rashomon (1950)
Film history class again, aha. I knew the plot of this film beforehand, as well as its influence. I read vonFiedler's post about it back in 2015, and it really stuck with me. So I had that in mind as I was watching it. In a few ways, it does seem muddled. Why wouldn't they believe the lady who just got raped? But I think the film does successfully complicate it so it's not just "can a woman be trusted or not".
Having known the plot beforehand, what I was really surprised about was how...the truth actually does come out, in a way. I personally have never been a fan of ambiguous endings just because, or to make the movie seem deeper (really the only issue I have with Inception is the ending: even though it's pretty clear he is in the real world, the use of the top attempts to make it ambiguous when it isn't). But the great thing is that it's not actually that hard to synthesize the four stories together and get a general idea of what really happened, especially with the framing story of the man poking holes in certain logic. Once that's done, you see it's not really important what happened, but what each person said and how that reflects their character and human nature. And of course people will say "well duh, that's the point of the whole movie!" However, it's important that they don't just say that it is the point, and that it is actually earned.
Overall, I think this earns its title as a great movie. There are even cool things that are rarely mentioned, like a really awesome samurai swordfight when the bandit is telling his side of the story. I've always been interested in the difference between medieval Japan and medieval Europe (and how they are usually portrayed in movies vs historical record) so it was cool to see that. Lots of dodging and fake outs, and not so much of the blocking!