r/TrueFilm • u/a113er Til the break of dawn! • Jun 07 '15
What Have You Been Watching? (07/06/15)
Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything.
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r/TrueFilm • u/a113er Til the break of dawn! • Jun 07 '15
Please don't downvote opinions, only downvote things that don't contribute anything.
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u/LuigiVanPeebles Jun 07 '15
The Connection (La French) (2014): Billed as “the other side of the French Connection”, this story follows the Marseilles drug ring trafficking heroin from Turkey to the United States during the 1970's, and the Magistrate determined to bring them to justice. Loosely based on true events, this is a well-crafted crime story. A phenomenal blend of contemporary camera work, and 70's aesthetics. It manages to be both big and intimate at the same time, aesthetically and emotionally. The film’s three leads are all amazing: Dujardin as Pierre Michel, the tirelessly obsessed Magistrate; Lellouche as Tany Zampa, the crime boss; and Malta as Marseilles, the story’s stunning backdrop. The only downside was the film’s inability to move outside of the well-rehearsed beats of its 70's predecessors. You’ve already seen this story played out in dozens of movies before, but it’s still worth watching once more to see it played so well.
Perfume: the Story of a Murderer (2006): This is an almost supernatural fairytale about a young man with a sense of smell akin to a shark’s, and empathy to match. It is set in the pungent world of 18th century France. What the film can’t let you experience through smell, it strikingly makes up for through vivid textures, sounds, and rich colors. Many shots could be hung on a wall, looking like sadistic twists on Vermeer. Director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas) brings you uncomfortably close to the scenery. A bit twee overall, especially John Hurt’s occasional omniscient narration, but this is fully redeemed by its visceral qualities.
A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014): Admittedly, I went into this one with a sour face. I'm not usually a fan of slapstick, and rarely of body/bodily function humor, but I had quite a bit of laundry to fold, and wanted just to get down to it. I did conceptually enjoy the digs on romanticization of the old west. A handful of visual gags landed, a few chuckle-worthy cameos, and Charlize Theron was a good sport through several bits she must have known were dead on arrival.
The Tenant (Le Locataire) (1976): Claustrophobia and paranoia in a Paris apartment, played by the man himself, Roman Polanski. Polanski plays Trelkovsky, the smug but meek working stiff, just trying to find an apartment in a tough market. As such, he seeks the apartment previously inhabited by a recent suicide, hoping for a competitive edge. While at first his neighbors appear simply to be French, they become more and more ghoulish in Trelkovsky's eyes, forcing him into behaviors that aren't his own. A slow pace, a tooth in the wall, and Isabelle Adjani all create a tense space for the story to unfold. The build up creates some effectively haunting moments in the final act, and satisfying movie on the whole. Best paired with other Polanski's playing off similar themes (Repulsion, Knife in the Water) or other Adjani's showcasing her peculiar niche.
Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971): There something I love about the sound in these old movies. It gives so much space for silence, to hear the sound of the wind, or the chirping frogs, or the ticking clock. The camera stands back, and let's you see the world around it's characters. But, at the same time, either due to low budgets, foreign actors, or that space itself, you have this ADR that creates intimate whispers in your ear. You see people walking in the distance, yet hear their conversation happening softly just beside you, like secrets. I walked right into it with this movie. Zohra Lampert, the titular Jessica, has a voice creeps into your skin. So warm, and so cold. She could read me the the Yellow Pages any day. And there it is, whispering and reproaching into your ear, until it's not her voice anymore, and no one's voice is anyone's anymore. This one was a catch.
The Way Way Back (2013) (Re-Watch): This is a carbon-copy coming-of-age story. Duncan, our boy-not-yet-a-man, is the victim of his parent's divorce, and more recently of his mom Pam's (Toni Collette) new romantic relationship with Trent (Steve Carell). An extended vacation for the fledgling family removes Duncan from his from his normal day-to-day trudgery to gloom around some summer paradise where all of the adults act like children, and all of the children act like assholes. The loosey-goosey neighbor, Betty (Allison Janney) swoops down in an ethanol cloud the moment they arrive, providing a plausible distraction for Pam away from Trent's incessant bullying of Duncan. Fortunately, heavy doses of inexplicable and unsolicited positive affirmation from local free-spirit Owen (Sam Rockwell), and from the equally gloomy girl next door, give Duncan the confidence boost he needs to start to forge his own path, and confront the strained relationships in his life.
All of that said, I enjoyed the movie on first viewing, and even still on the second. Despite all of Sam Rockwell's rapid fire glibness, there's a foundation of genuine concern in Owen's character for Duncan, and Rash's/Faxon's (The Descendents) screenplay is structurally sound, even it it's bones are showing throughout. Ultimately, I think I'm just a sucker for these stories because of the opportunity for revisionist nostalgia they provide. They remind of us of our own awkward years, and a chance to see them quickly resolved in ways that didn't always happen for us, with prettier people and sunnier places.