veethemonsoon Reviews

The Terms (2000)

Johnny O'Reilly captured this moment, this glimpse into the lives of two random people, in such a stirring and artistic way

[29 July 2002]

The Terms - a V. Emerson review

`My dad always told me I never done anything right. So when I burned down the caravan, I made sure to do it good and proper.'

So sets the mood for this dark, dramatic, and occasionally humorous glimpse into the life of a father and son.

Upon my first viewing of this film, I was puzzled. Upon my second, I laughed. Upon my third, I wanted so badly to know the fate of these two lost souls after the film's fade-out.

The Terms is a short film, by Johnny O'Reilly of Lemon Cut Productions. Based on a short story (`Getting It In The Head') by Mike McCormack, The Terms centers around a boy (Eamonn Owens, The Butcher Boy) and his father (John O'Toole, The General), the tension between them, and their deplorable lives in `the middle of nowhere' Ireland.

The boy, 15 years old, burns down the caravan in which he and his father live. The father, not happy with this stunt and with his performance as a son in general, decides to execute him. They work out The Terms for his punishment, and proceed to lead the viewer down a twisted, winding path which gets narrower and narrower. A path that, at the end of which, compels the viewer to question the convention of the father-son relationship, of the mentality of rural Ireland, and of modern filmmaking.

I mean this all in the most admirable way, of course. Questioning convention does not often lead to undesirable answers, if stated in the proper way. Johnny O'Reilly captured this moment, this glimpse into the lives of two random people, in such a stirring and artistic way – from the striking setting, to the candid camerawork, to the perfect casting. I cannot say that I have experienced anything like it, hence my inability to convey exactly what it stirred within me.

Questions, I suppose. About the conventional ideas of what art is, and what creates a damn good film.

• -V. Emerson, July 2002

Wet Hot American Summer (2001)

Entertaining. Silly. Revolutionary. Ridiculous. Risqué. Thought-provoking (well, sort of). And most of all: fun.

[29 July 2002]

My initial tendency upon seeing a good film is to emulate its tone. Walking home with a friend after watching Wet Hot American Summer on Sunday evening, I found myself being a silly, loud, obnoxious prankster making a ruckus on the streets of my city. Looking back, I must have seemed a fool; for those of you living in actual cities like Boston, Chicago, New York, and even Los Angeles, acting like a nut on the streets probably means little. However, in the small New England city of Providence, even if it is an artsy college town (for those of you out of the loop, yes it has become that within the last few years, contrary to its former days of a dying industrial mill city), it may have been a little unnecessary. My shouts and laughs echoed off the small buildings and bounced through the dark, empty streets.

But what can I say. I was inspired. I was amused. I was touched. And most of all, I was high.

No, no - I wasn't, really. But instead of being like an old-school Quentin Tarantino film, I am going to start at the beginning. A friend of mine and I wanted to go see a movie. We looked online at the listings of some local indie houses, and I nearly croaked when I saw that Wet Hot American Summer - which I had been following since pre-production - was playing at the Avon Repertory Cinema on the East Side. "Good lord!" I cried. "Am I really seeing this? Is that listing an illusion?"

In fact, my dear, it was not. It was playing. When? In a half an hour, of course!

Could we make it? With no car and a wretched public transportation system?

On a bike, we sure could!

So we shot over there, making it just in time… in record time, I do believe.

We then proceeded to watch the previews (I gushed over the one for Brazil [they play random classic trailers when they run out of new ones]), and continued on to the film, Wet Hot American Summer.

Wet Hot American Summer is your classic story of the last day of summer camp in Maine in the third week of August in 1981. The main theme is what of course is on everyone's mind during such a time (or any other time for that matter): love (or any variation thereof - specifically sex).

You have your camp director (Janeane Garofalo) with her crush on the local, non-camp-affiliated astrophysics professor (David Hyde Pierce); you have your resident dork (Michael Showalter, also co-filmmaker) who's been in love with the camp beauty queen (Marguerite Moreau) for about six years; you have your wannabe stud (Ken Marino) trying desperately to score with the camp slut (Marisa Ryan); you have your gay couple, one of whom's (Michael Ian Black) friends keep trying to get him laid; you have your neurotic arts-and-crafts instructor (Molly Shannon), just getting used to having an ex-husband (and not dealing too well with it).

You also have your non-love scenarios: the delusional (or is he?) ex-Vietnam vet turned chef (Christopher Meloni), the anally retentive talent show director (Amy Poehler), and the science nerds trying to save the world (or at least the camp) are just a few highlights. In toto, all these subplots made this film absolutely confusing and marvelously entertaining.

Filmed at a real-life camp, this movie whisks you away through a time machine back to the happier (or at least more trivial) times of childhood and those marvelous eight weeks of no school and no parents. It's all there: late night camp-fires, making out in the woods, bunk-raiding, cat fights, plenty of gum, mess hall, unenthusiastic sports playing, unsupervised boating, rafting down waterfalls, swimming (and drowning), and so much more.

Now I am quite biased, because I always appreciated a movie that makes me go "What the f**k" every three seconds, but I thought that Wet Hot American Summer was phenomenal. The direction of the filmmakers, Showalter and David Wain, was clever and surprisingly original. The acting was amazing and believable on all accounts, and jokes were pulled off superbly - from one-liners to drawn out gags and parodies - from both seasoned comedians as well as newcomers.

But the cast. C'mon now. Toss together members of The State and Upright Citizens Brigade together, add Garofalo and Pierce. Stir. It may sound scary (and a bit unappetizing), but it was absolutely brilliant casting. I always particularly notice how well certain members of any cast play off one another, and in this film there were many great moments. Two in particular are how Garofalo plays well individually with both Pierce and UCB's Poehler (the latter of whom and she do great improv together, let me tell ya). In the larger picture, all cast members complimented each other nearly perfectly, giving off a wonderfully neurotic and completely unbelievable take on the film's subject matter ("unbelievable" being, of course, a compliment).

Although the film wasn't perfect - my friend commented on how there were a lot of cheap laughs, and not many that built up to anything withstandingly funny, and I did agree with her - overall it was a great couple of hours of entertainment. Perhaps, though, for only certain senses of humor - as much as I enjoyed it, I am certainly not a mainstream comedy appreciator. I think it's worth a viewing, at least, for anyone, because it's revolutionary in some respects - it goes places comedically I've never seen in a feature film before (only in small Manhattan theatres, actually).

And so there you have it. My review of Showalter's and Wain's Wet Hot American Summer. Entertaining. Silly. Revolutionary. Ridiculous. Risqué. Thought-provoking (well, sort of). And most of all: fun.

The Same Side of Rejection Street (2000)

a million stars, at least!! amazing, underrated sociological film

[10/10 · 16 August 2001]

My favorite type of film has always been the kind that is rarely made: the "a day in the life" theme. This is mainly because I am very interested in the dissection of human nature and its reaction to others and their surroundings, to society. I think that only "a day in the life" films can get that deeply into characters enough for my liking. But unfortunately, the masses do not seem to like films that to them have no obvious plotline, no action and no car chases, and no easily-settling conclusion and message. I guess I'm deep like that. I guess most people want to watch a film as fluff, to escape reality, and the last thing they want to do is think about the lives, dreams, desires, and imperfections of total strangers – fictional characters at that. I, however, appreciate a film with a real message about society, human relations, and the questioning of the great notion that is, why the hell are we here?

S. G. Collins has achieved all this and more with his first feature film, The Same Side Of Rejection Street, set on the streets of Boston, starring Micheal Henderson and Karen Ball. Rejection Street had its world premiere at the Rhode Island International Film Festival on Friday, 11 August 2000.

Henderson plays the "charming, exotic, intelligent, insightful and crazy" Winston, a homeless-by-choice black man from Baltimore who has come back to his homecity of Boston for reasons unknown until nearly the end of the film. Winston is only crazy in the sense of a genius – he talks to statues and mannequins and the sky, but the long monologues he carries for them are philosophical, intelligent, addressing social issues without reservation, what I consider to be the perfect outlet for his obvious frustration and jaded outlook on life. According to Henderson, Winston's homelessness is "a stance he took to get a different view on society, and to stop himself from being too comfortable."

Ball portrays the alienated and often confused Catherine, who, according to Ball, "still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up… she hasn't found her niche yet… she's searching constantly and she has a lot of pain in that respect." She was recently fired from her last job as a telemarketer due to a man's advances who is continuing to shadow her (Terrence, played by George Young), and in the day that the film takes place, has an unsuccessful interview at a business firm. She is very different from her family and peers, is a bit of a loner, which makes her just that much more insecure about her place in the world. She was also raped when she was twenty-two (she's now thirty), and although it isn't elaborated much in the film, it is alluded that this was a defining point in what she would consider her dreary existence.

Winston and Catherine randomly meet in a cafe, and throughout the day continue to run into each other by chance until they finally give in and bond – seeking solace in each other's company in an odd sort of way. Their budding relationship is based solely on their need to figure themselves out, to get through another confusing day, and by the end of the film it is obvious that their lives and outlooks have been changes forever, for better or for worse. They are more liberated in some ways, yet more confused in others.

The messages of the film are many, varying, and often seemingly contradictory. In some respects, it's a statement of how beautiful and fulfilling life can be, in another, how absolutely horrifying, confusing, and full of bull**** this society is. Writer/director Collins says: "…there's a cluster of things [this film represents]… if you stood far enough away, would look like a dot… Every time I come close to making a political statement with this movie, I step away from it, or turn it around and argue against it. The whole thing is kind of stretched against itself." It's about redemption, beauty, honesty, hostility, and the perception of others. As Ball thinks, "…we humans are so judgmental when we see somebody… and this movie… takes that pre-judgment, and totally blows it out of the water. And you realize that everyone you pass is a human being."

I've watched this film but once, and feel that in order to get a full understanding of it, I'll have to see it again, maybe even many times over. It's a very complex film, filled with between-the-lines statements and hidden meaning. I totally related to it – the struggle of a unique mind trying to get through this dreary universe, trying so hard not to get frustrated by every amount of inconsistency and wretchedness the world throws at you. The film to me is about outcasts – about severe individualists in a society that was created for unthinking robots. Watching it, I became so emotionally attached to the characters, by the end I yearned for more. (Maybe Collins will make a sequel!)

It was extremely intelligently written, superbly acted and directed, and cleverly filmed – showing the beauty of the city and at the same time the harsh, gritty reality. Although shot on a very low budget (forty thou), it is obvious that no less than genius was involved in its creation – something most (if not all) big-budget Hollywood films can hardly claim. Collins chose the perfect cast and crew, to create a stunning film that touched me deeply. It gave me a certain sense of hope – hope that some day this society will come to its senses. That may be the ultimate idealist in me, contradicted by the cynic that says it probably will never happen; but every once in a while a film like this shows me the world as it is, both lifts and drags my spirits, makes me smile, laugh, cry, and p***ed, all the same viewing.

Memento (2000)

incredible, unique, mind-bending film which calls for several viewings

[10/10 · 16 August 2001]

Went to see it two days in a row. It was so powerful, so real that upon returning to my car (the first time), I was in such a daze, and was sure that any minute, I was going to become victim to the main character's "condition"... My mom, with whom I saw it the second time, felt the same thing.

American Playhouse: True West (1984) Season 3, Episode 3

amazing adaption of play

[10/10 · 16 August 2001]

Gary Sinise and John Malkovich were, as always, incredible. This movie was phenomenal. Leave it to the dudes of Steppenwolf to create such a masterpiece, a film based on a play (which was directed by Sinise on Broadway) that, however unchanged, was portrayed on film beautifully.