Change Your Image
akkittelson
Reviews
The Garage (2006)
Watching Bolts Turn
Great cast (except for one huge exception) and some nice shots of a beautiful landscape, but otherwise this movie is enormously flawed.
Why am I going out of my way to write a critique? Am I just mean? Perhaps, but I have some thoughts that I think are worth sharing, or at least I have a bone to pick because I feel I am owed some time back.
This story is unbelievably boring. It is like watching concrete grow or like watching bolts turn. Hardly anything of interest happens. The only compelling aspect is the family's predicament, but sadly that isn't the focus, and it doesn't satisfactorily change.
Any time something seemingly central is about to happen, something else unrelated and peripheral happens instead.
There is no cause and effect. When the main character finds his dad among a group of men sharing a hooker, he does nothing, which is weird. That would be the perfect time for the main character to rethink his loyalty to his dad, which would help him decide to agree to leave town right away. The central conflict is that the main character's best friend wants to leave town as soon as possible, and the main character doesn't quite yet. His excuse is that he wants to help out his dad. Once he finds out that his dad isn't the man he thought he was, he should change his mind.
Also, the main character's best friend says he needs to get out of town because he can no longer withstand his father's abuse. It would be so much more powerful if he is ultimately beaten to incapacitation by his father, rather than being hit by a car. His father is the looming danger. Having his father beat him to death would make the rising stakes culminate, and it would make the main character's plea "Just one more week..." so much more meaningful.
There are peripheral and loose ends that never tie in. This movie needs to be much tighter.
Compounding the torture of the boring story, the plot flaws and the dangling ends is the unbelievably awful performance by the actress Tania Ramonde. Her performance might be the worst on-screen performance I have seen in years, if not ever.
I don't blame her; I blame the director.
How could the director think that her oddly wandering eyes and contrived "sensuality" (I put it in quotes because I do not find her to be sexy at all) are pleasing to either the story or to an audience's eyes? I had to hide my eyes. I really did.
Also, her character just appears out of nowhere. Why is she walking around this strange and desolate town all alone so late at night? Why is she dressed like she lives in modern day Beverly Hills? And if this town is so small, how come she and the main character do not know each other before this night when she just walks up out of the darkness?
This brings me to another point about the setting: Where are the stores and the cars and the people? Was this project so low budget that they couldn't afford any props or extras? It's like a ghost town, except without the ghosts.
In summary, I care about the plight of the family, and I think that most of the acting is quite admirable. I just think that the story is clichéd, boring and long-winded and the acting by the ingénue is...I won't be rude and say it again because I don't want to burst her bubble. Like I said, I blame the director.
All in all, I give this movie a 3.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Happiness with a Y
While a pivotal scene regarding the misspelling of the word "happiness" might have been cut (according to IMDb's trivia section), the significance of the misspelling was not completely lost. The fact that the Chinese-run daycare misspelled the word contains meaning enough. Many people come from all over the world to pursue happiness, and of course many of those people, especially those whose languages don't even contain alphabets, spell "happiness" incorrectly. I thought it was a nicely placed symbol.
I loved the movie, and it is not just because I lived in SF for fifteen years and drove a Yellow cab for two and sang in the choir of Glide Memorial Church where Chris Gardner was and is a member, but because the story was very well performed and presented. I cried every time Will Smith cried. I felt as though I was there.
I too was once homeless - when I was in high school - and I know exactly what that feeling of moving forward despite everything feels like.
Now, I am a Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer. This afternoon I brought my Little to the movie. I hope she could fathom the significance of the message - that with drive, perseverance and a keen understanding and exploitation of one's natural attributes can you not only pursue happiness, but actually wholeheartedly embrace it.
Anyhootle, despite any missteps in continuity or time/date issues, the movie was a delight.
Andrea Kittelson
Hustle & Flow (2005)
From Pulitzer -Worthy Beginning to Pat Ending - SPOILERS
The performances were all (except that of Ludicrous, which was just OK) outstanding. I thought the first third of the movie was so spectacular that I said aloud to myself, "Forget Oscar, this should win a Pulitzer!" But right after I thought that, the movie changed. The movie went from layered and rich poetry to pat Hollywood formula. At the moment when the pimp made his #1 girl kiss the microphone, it all came crashing back to Earth for me.
The microphone as penis metaphor was so obvious and on the nose it made me mad. Making her kiss the microphone is no different from making her suck a d$#k. I'm sure that analogy is what the writer/director intended; but nonetheless, in either case the hooker has little power. Isn't she supposed to be on an upward trajectory of self-empowerment? Didn't she just participate in that "I'm in charge" scene? Rather than oblige and actually kiss the mic, she should have sung into it or spoken into it or somehow changed what he asked her to do so that she preserved even an inkling of personal power.
After that scene, the movie continued to be typical and, I dare say, more and more sexist. The male protagonist becomes increasingly nice and "gives" his women more and more power. The women don't claim it for themselves, they have to wait for it to be delivered. OK, fine so he's an ogre with a heart, but then what? Then the "hero" gets ridiculous. He becomes cartoon-angry over the tape in the toilet. Hasn't his character grown to be smarter and more proud than that? Surely his character would know that if Skinny didn't like it someone else would. Cut your losses and move on.
The whole ending sequence made the hero small and ignorant. He wasn't small and ignorant in the beginning, he was just a victim of circumstance embarking on a journey to self-empowerment. His actions at the end were regressive, not progressive. They were the actions of an idiot, not a hero. Sure, we can empathize and understand that he is angry and feels betrayed and that he had all his hopes on that one tape and with that one guy; but any reasonable person, let alone a hero on an upward spiral, would know to not overreact so hugely.
Anyhoo, despite those aspects that I found irritating, it was still a rich and interesting cinematic experience with unbelievable performances, especially from the pimp and his blond "primary investor."