Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy (2011)

No movies adapted from John Le Carré novels come to mind when I recall bad film experiences. The complexity of the characters, the extreme circumstances, and the very personal look at the decisions and consequences they face make a film like Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy well worth a look.

Oh, and the grand performances must be mentioned.

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À Bout de Souffle (1960)

From another time - generational angst that defined the 1960s. Chock full of anti-establishment, lust, and recklessness. A cop killing Frenchman pines over a blond American girl trying to get her to escape with him. She half-heartedly gives in to his advances only to half-heartedly flee. There is a back and forth that shows they both really don't know what they want.

The movie is a classic and it's worth watching just to see what Paris looked like a half century ago. The plot and acting is dramatic enough to keep you engaged, but the tale has been told many times since by copycats, so it isn't that new anymore.

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Funny Games (1997)

I wonder what film maker Michael Haneke would say if he knew I watched both versions of Funny Games. This horrifying presentation of violence is meant to provoke and interact with the viewer. The American version is almost scene for scene a replica of the German one.

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The Conversation (1974)

Gene Hackman acts in this early film noir that helped sustain his status as a serious actor. He plays a wire tapper private investigator who stumbles upon a crime that is going to happen. Throughout the film he struggles with what his action should be as his job could facilitate the crime. Some great twists.

The ideas of incomplete pictures and what we should and shouldn't have access to give the film some great depth.

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Right at Your Door (2006)

The twist at the end did very little to redeem this film. The preview showed promise and I think it could have been great. It wasn't.

A dirty biological bomb goes off in L.A. setting the entire metropolitan area under a cloud of a contagious disease. Brad seals himself inside his house after finding that it will be impossible to locate and get to his girlfriend, Lexy, who is downtown. He is faced with a dilemma when Lexy shows up at his house, coughing and asking to come in.

Some scenes drag on and on and while the opening sequence is pretty gripping, the last 3/4 of it lack depth and intensity.

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Ciao maschio (1978)

This weirdo movie was a big hit at Cannes back in the late 70's. Bye Bye Monkey is an art film contemplation of gender roles, aging and history.

An immigrant man in New York (a very young Gerard Dépardieu) finds work at a historical wax museum and as a tech at a tiny art theatre house. He is seduced/attacked by the actresses there, one of whom he develops a more lasting relationship with. With more friends they find the carcass of King Kong on the beach and then adopt a baby chimpanzee. Things just get stranger and stranger as the story drifts into more and more surrealism.

I found very little about the film to be appealing and even less to be meaningful.

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Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)

This is the first silent film that I am reviewing on this blog. They have a hard time competing with speaking films I guess. As I saw Herzog's remake of this classic Nosferatu, I thought it would be cool to see how it built on this one. The stories are virtually identical - some divergence at the end.

The film is full of clues as the real estate agent travels to visit Count Orlok, a vampire and as he returns to find his town overcome by the plague.

A note if you do watch this, check out the various audio tracks at the beginning of the show. I found watching it in double speed helped with the super slow pacing and phrase panels.

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Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

So, I've recently discovered the films of Werner Herzog, so I zipped all of the ones I hadn't seen and got this 1979 remake of the 1922 German silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.

The film opens with a sequence of mummified bodies, certainly the most gripping part of the film and the most horrifying too. The tale is that of Count Dracula, a vampire of Transylvania who is visited by a real estate agent, Mr. Harker, played by a much younger Bruno Ganz. The Count is super creepy which begs the question: Why in the world would Mr. Harker enter his decaying castle with this really long fingered dude with two pointy teeth and after having been warned by countless locals about the evils there. Anyway, he gets the warm welcome and Dracula makes his way by ship to Germany to dwell in his new home (and bring some rats along).

Herzog shot each sequence twice, once in English and once in German, thus all of the lines are spoken with thick German accents. The film has a strong low budget quality to it and the story just has the viewer shaking his head in disbelief. It has its moments, like a long out of print book with a missing cover.

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Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand (2004)

One of the earliest films made in Iraq during the current war, Turtles Can Fly passionately depicts the plight of children during wartime, particularly those who are already refugees in their own country.

An enterprising young teenage Kurd leads a workforce of children who clear fields of land mines in northern Iraq and setting up satellite dishes for the surrounding refugee camps and villages. He becomes enamored with a girl who cares for a baby and her older maimed brother. The United States are about to invade Iraq.

The film is made with non-actors and this makes it even more affecting as you know these children actually live in these conditions. The story becomes even more tragic as the girl's history is told and her future is obliterated.

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Last Days (2005)

Gus Van Sant's take on the last couple days of grunge icon Kurt Cobain, except that it's all made up and the lead character is some Blake guy.

Blake walks around a semi-abandoned estate that is very rundown. A few junkie friends lurk around the mansion. That's pretty much the movie.

This could be one of the most boring films I have ever watched. No character depth. Virtually no dialogue (except for when some Mormons come to the house - a highlight). No story arc. Nothing. We don't even get to see Blake kill himself.

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Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)

A prison drama with a fantasy element delivers surprising depth.

Somewhere in Latin America, Luis shares a cell with Valentin a political prisoner. Luis is a flagrant homosexual who despite repulsing Valentin, is able to entertain him with stories of a bewitching spider woman. Luis is bribed to spy on Valentin by the warden and the tension mounts as the viewer is teased by the possibility that Luis would give up his cell mate to the secret police for his own freedom.

The acting in the film is compelling and the simple story is overshadowed by real human drama. I must say that the dream sequences and story telling is a bit out there and difficult to correlate with the main tale.

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Ringu (1998)

This is the thriller/horror flick that got The Ring franchise started. And, to give it its worthy merit, the story keeps you guessing to the end.

A journalist decides to investigate rumours surrounding the deaths of teens in her town in Japan. The circulating tale is that they watched a video tape exactly a week previous to their sudden deaths and what they saw killed them. She manages to locate the VHS tape and watches it herself making it a matter of time before her doom comes. The race is on.

What is truly refreshing about this film compared to western thrillers is the emphasis on what you don't know rather than the shock value. The elements of grotesque and cringeworthy scenes are present, but simply not the meat of the film. There is great use of showing reaction and backstory in order to heighten the tension.

I thought the unfolding story was very original and at the same time exhaustingly unbelievable.

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Barton Fink (1991)

The Coen brothers have made heaps of films since this most acclaimed art house film came out. Barton Fink is even characterized as an anti-type story on every level which, when done by master filmmakers becomes an instant classic.

When Barton Fink is charged with writing a money making wrestling movie for a hollywood studio after moderate stage success back in New York, he experiences writing block. Between the severe heat, a pesky hotel neighbour and difficult to read studio executives, Fink can barely get an opening line typed out. 

But the film is much more than a comedy about a self-absorbed writer, it's about story-telling and representing others. The role of authors carries an enormous burden to retell the plight of one part of society, but to tell it after listening to them.

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The Wrestler (2008)

This is a tour de force by both director Darren Aronofski and Mickey Rourque. Rourque especially nails the role of the expiring wrestler.

The wrestler, "The Ram," is degenerating in almost every aspect of his life. He's likable though and makes friends easily. He lives for the hype of the ring and is willing to sacrifice everything for it, even when all that is good is on the line. He doesn't really want to face who he is, even struggling with his name.

This film haunted me for days, not unlike Aronofski's earlier film "Requiem for a Dream." I was moved.

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Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Lars von Trier brings us the tragedy of an afflicted immigrant woman played by the glorious Bjørk. What lifts this film to a higher plain still is the fact that it is a musical.

Bjørk's character plays a single mother who works in a factory. Her eyesight is failing and her son is slightly truant. Her landlord neighbour is burdened with financial problems and her part in the community production of the Sound of Music become increasingly difficult. The tale spirals downward in its testimony of American justice.

Jesus said, "I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was homeless and you gave me a room, I was shivering and you gave me clothes, I was sick and you stopped to visit, I was in prison and you came to me." This film is a modern day parable, with a tremendous soundtrack to boot!

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Naked Lunch (1991)

David Cronenberg spins this surreal tale beginning in the real and stable world of a modest and honest exterminator. When the powder he uses is discovered to have narcotic qualities, we slip into a drug induced world of spying, literature, sordid sex and murder.

It's hard to measure what a viewer can gather from such a unique film. Certainly, layers of humanity are exposed when drugs are involved, but at a rather high cost. The acting is compelling and you can sense that everything has a hint of reality.

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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)

This is a stark black and white film with an even bleaker ending. John Le Carré wrote the book the film is based on. 

Leamas, a British spy, gets his last field assignment to go after an East German counter-intelligence spy. The film routinely stays one step ahead of the viewer, but after watching many films which were no doubt influenced by this one, we can make some decent predictions.

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MASH (1970)

Robert Altman barely holds this largely incoherent film together with a couple fool doctors. 

A Mobile Army Surgical Hospital is stationed in Korea in the 1950s. Sex, alcohol, and stunts keep the staff occupied when they are out of the operating room. 

In its day, MASH was an innovative film with ongoing dialogue in the background and plenty of ad lib from the actors. Today, it's difficult to stay awake with much of the lines being washed over by background noise and incoherent speech. The actors often mumble their lines on top of that. The movie is episodic and doesn't have much continuity to hold the story together.

In large part, besides producing some comedy, this film is a rebellion to the Vietnam war at the time and to the military establishment. 

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The Tracey Fragments (2007)

Tracey, 15, searches for her young brother as a blizzard threatens to take over Winnipeg. Her telling of the circumstances she finds herself in (wearing only a shower curtain on a city bus) is told in loose fragments and the film reflects this by dividing the film frame into numerous angles and scenes. Watching the film is difficult because of this, but at the same time it's an interesting way of looking at a subject like memory. 

The subject matter is also quite disturbing as there is quite a lot of abusive behaviour and little hope. Ellen Page brings a high level of pathos and autonomy to her character.

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Match Point (2005)

Woody Allen presents us with a moral tale of deception, but deception of one's self. The question is "are we to experience guilt if we are never caught?" There are a variety of sins that the protagonist commits and he rejects the notion of responsibility in all of them. A Dostoyevsky novel can be seen on a coffee table in one scene showing the primacy of the guilt issue.

The story is very compelling. The acting is superb. The dialogue is unusually subdued for an Allen film, suggesting he heavily edited himself, which for me makes the film even better: distilled greatness.

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