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Reviews
Mulholland Dr. (2001)
A David Lynch Puzzle that's worth taking time to solve
David Lynch is one of those directors that I'm glad is out there making movies, even though I've never fully grooved on his particular style of storytelling. I admire him far more than I embrace him. When all is said and done in the career of David Lynch, he'll be most fondly remembered as the man who made strangely twisted noir like "Blue Velvet" and "Twin Peaks" (which held its sanity for as long as it could.)
The David Lynch films that most people find so infuriating are what I like to call his "puzzle box" movies. In films like "Eraserhead" and "Lost Highway", Lynch buries his meaning in dream logic and symbols. His refusal to explain his work only adds fuel to the fire lit by his detractors.
"Mullholland Drive" starts out as twisted film noir, but about ninety minutes in Lynch does an abrupt gear change and delves deep into "puzzle box" territory. This will frustrate many viewers because the first half is immensely absorbing, and I'll admit as the final hour played out I was growing increasingly frustrated by what Lynch was doing with characters I had come to embrace.
But as I walked out of the theatre, my mind ready to explode, I started thinking, and working my way through it. And as I gnawed at it, like a piece of corn stuck between my teeth, the greatest thing happened. Something that never happened with "Eraserhead", "Lost Highway" or the final episodes of "Twin Peaks". As the pieces came together, the theme of "Mullholland Drive" became very clear to me, and the film went from frustrating to brilliant.
This movie is a challenge, and it requires a lot of thought afterwards. (I warn you not to see it alone. The more minds helping you the better.) But this time take comfort in the fact that THIS DAVID LYNCH PUZZLE HAS A SOLUTION! Everything does make sense. Not only that, but once I figured out the story, I marveled at how much more powerful the story was BECAUSE of the way Lynch decided to tell it.
For example (and I'll call this not just a minor *spoiler* but a clue) one character exists simultaneously at both the happiest and saddest time in her life. It appears that one actress is playing two characters, because the two personalities are so different. But it's the same person, and by putting them in front of you side by side, the sadness of the situation (the loss of joy) is far more powerful than linear storytelling would have brought across.
"Mullholland Drive" is not going to work for everyone. If you hated "Naked Lunch", "Memento" or "Eyes Wide Shut" you're probably going to hate this one too. I however think it's the finest example to date of David Lynch doing what he does best. It's breathtaking, brilliant and one of the best movies I've seen in the last couple of years. (Yet if I hadn't figured the story out, I wouldn't be gushing right now.)
Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha (1999)
Overhyped, Obnoxious Garbage From A Talented Director
Directed by Japan's newest phenom, Miike Takashi, DEAD OR ALIVE is the story of two hitmen looking to make one final score in order to financially assist family members. Director Takashi took a half-baked action script as a dare to do something fresh with it.
Takashi pulls out a lot of visual tricks, but I found most of them to be pretentious, confusing and distracting. (Kind of like the people who can't stand Guy Ritchie.) He's so over-determined to be different and to shock you that there's noting left to root for. The most acclaimed aspects of the film are its first and last 10 minutes. The first 10 (a series of executions intercut with a striptease) are shockingly graphic, but it feels like exploitation, not refreshing ideas. Everything feels cheap and dirty and the editing style is obnoxious. The final 10 goes ridiculously over the top, but again does so only to prove that it can. There are some good moments but overall it's highly underwhelming.
Batoru rowaiaru (2000)
A Great First Half Gives Way To A Half-Baked Conclusion
By the halfway point, BATTLE ROYALE was my favorite film of 2001. Unfortunately, there's a shift of tone in the film's second half and as this wicked, vicious, violent satire filled with "importance" and "meaning", its initial gut-punch impact slipped into a more mainstream mode. The first half is like David Fincher's NATURAL BORN KILLERS, the second half is John Woo's THE THIN RED LINE.
I do recommend the movie, the 2nd half isn't a total loss by any stretch and some of the film's best scenes occur there. But the first half just flowed like great films do. It wasn't just a bunch of great scenes, each great scene clicked right into the next one. The second half is a collection of isolated moments of interest. In fact, by that time the film's fantastic premise (of setting violent teens against each other) didn't feel the least bit shocking. There's a lot of talk about the film's level of violence, but it's no more violent than HARD BOILED. (It's just that the killers here are 15 years old.)
Gokudô sengokushi: Fudô (1996)
A Great Introduction To The Japanese New Wave
FUDOH: THE NEW GENERATION is probably the best starting point if someone wants to study the new wave of cinema coming out of Japan. While not as good as RING or as thought provoking as AUDITION or the films of "Beat" Takeshi, FUDOH will best prepare you for the extreme limits of violence and taste common to Japanese cinema. (The Japanese perspective on sex and violence is a mix of Paul Verhoeven and the Farrelly Brothers.)
FUDOH's sex and violence isn't in unwatchably bad taste. I'd say it's right on the line.
In the film, a Yukaza father with two sons messes up and must pay a tribute to show loyalty to the other Yakuza families. He does this by killing his oldest son (in a prologue that had me so confused I had to read the video box to follow what was happening.) Ten years later, the youngest son (now the smartest and most popular kid in high school) organizes his friends to take revenge against his father and all the other Yakuza leaders for practicing outdated customs that condone killing one's own family members.
Like most Japanese films, FUDOH works on two levels. On the surface, it's a violent revenge picture (and this one moves faster than most Japanese films.) The film is also a commentary on the relationships between fathers and sons (while enemies the two show more in common then they'd ever admit), young and old, and the need to question tradition and keep things current.
Of course most people will walk away from FUDOH talking about the wild sequences of sex and violence. This is the film by Miike Takashi (DEAD OR ALIVE, AUDITION) that put him on the map. (It also got him labeled the Japanese Verhoeven.) Typical of the director's work, FUDOH would most definitely be 'NC-17', with scenes of six-year-olds performing assassinations and a stripper who shoots poison darts from her.you know where. (You have to see it to believe it, and the fact that Takeshi is able to show it without explicit nudity - the girl uses a blowgun-like tube - proves that he does have a threshold of taste.)
I enjoyed large chunks of FUDOH. It's far superior to the better known DEAD OR ALIVE and more entertaining than AUDITION, although it's nowhere near as mature or thought provoking. It's also worth noting that this film is very Japanese in its behind-the-times attitudes towards females. The sexism is a bit surprising coming from Takashi, since AUDITION (which the director made five years later) is one of the strongest cinematic arguments for a woman's sexual equality that Japan's ever produced.