wanchope Reviews

Last Life in the Universe (2003)

Whimsical

[9/10 · 24 January 2005]

there's something about this movie that makes me just want to break out in a big smile, and it has nothing to do with my thinking the lead actress is really pretty. the visual composition of this movie as with most movies by Christopher Doyle is amazing. you could stop the movie at any point and it would make an award winning photograph. Tadanobu Asano also displays in this movie why he is one of my favourite actors. his performances in this movie, ichi the killer and zatoichi should rate him as one of the best actors outside of Hollywood(not that that makes him worse than anyone there, and he should stay out of Hollywood but thats a totally different subject for another day). the film itself has a pretty simple storyline, but follows a rather similar tone to another movie that was released last year, lost in translation. personally i felt this movie was superior because it seemed less contrived and pretentious. plus the extra little storyline with the yakuza is fall-off-your-chair funny. with hints of wong kar wai this is a very refreshing movie that should help get back your faith that good movies can still be made on small budgets.

Elephant (2003)

and then?

[5/10 · 24 January 2005]

halfway into this movie i thought " right,OK. what's going on here?". i honestly think this movie tries way too hard. sure there are some merits. some of the shots are very nice. obviously the film makers put a lot of thought into the composition of every scene. and its interesting to see Gus Van Sant trying to showcase a theme like high school shootings in a different way. i think he kind of failed with it though. idea - 10, execution - 0. there seems to be a non existent narrative lingering somewhere trying to present a story to you. sure some call it experimental bold film-making. i'd prefer a lazy attempt at making a movie. some of the shots are tremendously painstaking to watch. they drag on and on without really adding to anything let alone move the story along(thats if there indeed is a story to be told here). mythical journey this is not. also, for a movie trying so hard to please film festivals(come on, we all know that was the point of those long boring shots.), it allows itself to fill in the space with some really clichéd looks at teenage life. it seems like Mr.Van Sant ran out of ideas,was short of time and knew he couldn't do any more of those long one take shots so he threw in all sorts of really bad views on teenage life.

you could definitely do better by watching something else. At certain points this movie just looks like an art-house version of World's Wildest Police Videos. i feel bad for saying this but i'd rather have watched Starsky and Hutch.