Change Your Image
mxmlln
http://uxmonty.com?utm_source=personal%20website%20link&utm_medium=IMDB&utm_campaign=2014%20september%20homepage
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Larry Crowne (2011)
Beware: Larry Crowne is not a romance, just a comedic cc adventure.
Again, we are presented with a movie unlike its preview. The only similarity is that LARRY CROWNE is clearly a comedy and I did find myself giggling during a few scenes. However, the film is actually an adventure story about a man who goes to college for the first time, not the romance the preview suggests. Is going to community college really an adventure, especially while in foreclosure? Not at all, really, resulting in an altogether lackluster film.
The story has little or no conflict and we watch as Larry goes to class and makes friends of his new peers. But where are Larry's previous friends? He simply doesn't have any, just a very close neighbor down the street to mentor him through his troubles. To complicate matters, he misinterprets signals from his new female best friend, causing a misdirection in plot. How many comedies intentional lead you astray to surprise you at the end? Likely, zero. All these problems complicate the viewing experience, but cannot create a semblance of a main conflict to propel the story.
After about 3/4 of the way into the film, Larry and his speech teacher Merci finally start a romance: This is where the preview footage finally comes together. However, the happy ending cannot recover the direction-less majority. Still, not a bad job for your first feature film, Hanks.
Shopgirl (2005)
Poorly timed with aesthetic integrity
Martini "Shop Girl"; The Movie Reviewed
The preview bought me. With its summarily attractive kinetics of romance and difficulties, I sought the identical, unabridged counterpart. Instead, the film stopped moving and was replaced by a vacuum with no visible direction or conclusion. Despite the hollow and always difficult middle, the film completed well, as it had begun.
I have something good to say to justify my latter criticisms. "Shop Girl" was likely the most uncompromising and consistent film in terms of aesthetics. Every scene and its shots were thoughtfully composed to produce as much beauty as it could. Usually a film will attempt such, but after the content develops the relevance of the shots will outweigh the integrity of the composition. However, "Shop Girl" kept its pride and even to the detriment of the lens focus, the film pursued its aim of absolute perfection.
"Shop Girl" stars a lonely, Saks Fifth Avenue counter-girl named Mirabelle. Her situation is changed when two men approach her, separately. The dating scenes are pathetic and awkward which reveal the reality for most. Considering the slow pace, due mostly to the desired tone and elaborate composing of irrelevant, drawn-thin beauty shots, we wait for a direction to appear. The movie decides to sit and plays with nothingness. Meanwhile, Schwartzman's seemingly essential, corner character, Jeremy, is sidelined and the relevant actions that he serendipitously participates in are given no importance. Regardless of the suffering of this section, the film comes back for a good finish.
The illnesses of the film can be diagnosed as a poorly paced heart. For most scenes, the frostbitten pace was appropriate and complimented the anxiousness of the characters. However, the movie did not make any good decisions with regard to the music. Most scenes are left empty to enhance the nervousness, but the film then has no track at all, which is certainly not correct. The scenes that employed music usually left the characters silent and we are given a feeling without any content and depth. The music chosen was usually entirely ill suited. Probably taken from a better soundtrack from a more urgent and powerful scene and played over an incongruent sequence. To supplement this problem, the temporal attributes of the larger picture were poorly directed. Individually, each scene had a realistic and consistent timing. Holistically, the dedication to each sequence was simply not calculated correctly or at all. The audience is left with a host of redundant love scenes, while the dynamic scenes where the characters make decisions to change are sped past. "Shop Girl" has one catastrophic problem with pace. This film was given a bad heart and pumped weightless, bad blood to all its tributaries.
Broken Flowers (2005)
Experimenting with Murray
I know that I had to get this review out before the second weekend that this "Broken Flowers" movie would have the opportunity to claim more money from the better, active film audiences. The only example of worthy work that the director has put out is Ghost Dog. I and other well-versed audiences give him benefits for such a fine film, but neither before nor after has Jarmusch captivated any attention. By starring Bill Murray in his newest release, Jarmusch can bring in the new faces and hopefully renegotiate old ones. I fell for it willingly.
"Broken Flowers" is a new direction for Jarmusch. He has forsaken his lengthy shots for much more conventional sequencing. However, most of the extra, aesthetic shots, which would before have been filled by characters waiting for the story to continue, were poorly composed. Usually consisting simply of window mirrors and other roadside attractions, these shots were all captured from inside the car. Normally, I would support such independent pursuits, but they were made so apparent and did nothing with the money saved. If they had shot from inside the car, certainly they would be perfectly capable of filming something more valuable than driver-side and rear-view mirrors. Since these amateur shots were used to fill between more most important scenes, the film was boring in a different mode than Jarmusch usually chooses.
Though one could expect this film's pace to be significantly quicker than previous Jarmusch films, he does not seem interested in accepting that convention. Other elements of the film subtracted from the stylistic evolution that our director was attempting. Bill Murray plays Don Johnston and I do not understand why that is funny. He is an aging bachelor, recently dumped by a much younger, fashionable woman. Johnston receives an anonymous letter stating that a son, whose existence is unknown to him, may be trying to find him. Johnston matter-of-factly informs his neighbor and friend Winston, who takes charge of the situation and attempts to find the perpetrator. However, Johnston is the only one who can actually investigate and interrogate suspects, but has no interest in the chase or results. Eventually, Winston convinces him to do the search, but Johnston never activates the interest and distances himself from the story and conflict. The audience is lost in a plot planned out by a more-than-supporting character. Winston is pulling the strings and Johnston struggles in the entanglements, which may appear to be an interesting experiment, but so many conceptual fundamentals are either missing or done incorrectly that the film fails in the most important way, id est story.
Thus, one is left with a film that has created an irrelevant story and plot without a visual candy or drug to pull you through the mess. There is not much more to a film than those key elements because we can rely on the actors for a consistent and appropriate performance, which is especially the case in "Broken Flowers". Bill Murray and Jeffrey Wright, as well as the majority of names and faces audiences will be pleased to see, gave the film some life. Mr. Murray was quite suited for the story and director because of the energy and hilarious commentary provided by his neutral expression. While previously Roberto Benigni's performance introduced an interesting contrast and compensation for Jarmusch's extended shots, Mr. Murray parallels the slow pace while bringing an energy to the almost dead heartbeat. The cast makes apparent the Jarmuschness of the script. With respect to fulfilling the comedy and flippancy that all previous Jarmusch films lack, but promised in the preview, the audience and I were overall disappointed. Everyone in the audience seemed to laugh at their own times though mas o menos throughout the film, which demonstrates the success of the performance and failure of the creators' intent. Fight your intense and painful need to view this film. Vote: 3 of 10
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
The Big Four Oh, Been There
Although, I was never privileged enough to be treated to the preview, the movie poster for The 40-year-old-virgin was sufficiently sweet. Alone, Steve Carell looks up like a naive, optimistic virgin who has not entirely unveiled the world and expects the world from it. However, the movie reveals a different character. Steve Carell plays Andy Stitzer, who has altogether dismissed friendship and romance alike. Andy spends his time alone playing instruments and video games, but mostly painting and playing with collectible figures. At work he is sociable, but has difficulty connecting with his peers.
The story begins when the salespeople need another poker player to fill their quota. Though one player believes Andy' strange persona is surely a ominous sign, they have no one left to ask. After Andy's online poker experience forces one player to leave, the play stops and the workers attempt to know Andy better. The discussion turns toward females and Andy is called on to share his dirtiest moment. His discomfort is quite apparent and he simply repeats how dirty the girl talked. No one is convinced and someone insulting asks if Andy has had sex. Andy quickly denies these claims, but the others readily realize its truth and our story begins.
The other workers are quick to help and conform Andy. Though initially Andy is quite excited and willing, he soon grows weary of the chase. He has been accepting advice he does not wholly believe and since there have been no results, he no longer has to participate in these foreign belief systems. Andy has given up on eliminating his virginity and is perfectly content to resume life as it was. The reason this story appeals to me so is that I find conflict's necessity to story difficult to accept. Does every story have to have some pain to be interesting? Is life a series of large and small pains and would that be worth living? 40yov achieves a captivating story and almost too intelligent backdrop for many consecutive laughs. Andy does not accept the conflict. Only the other characters that support him see a problem, just as Chancey Gardiner, the lead in "Being There", Peter Sellers final film, was oblivious to his inability to fend for himself. The interesting question is which side the audience participates in. Certainly most more sexually active members of the audience that have great difficulty sitting still for two hours will side with the peers or strongly desire Andy himself. However, the audience will inherently accept Andy's view because he is the story. Thus, we are watching a film that has a brilliant, novel story, but rejects the urgency of the conflict. When Andy does not accept the conflict, the plot thins and we are no longer in an analytic film with normal cause and effect. The film takes a continental approach and the character is not pushed in any direction and picks its actions at leisure. Nonetheless, the modern, reflexive humor will appeal to most audiences.
One of the film creators must have been inspired by "Being There" because no film has used such a similar form to escape convention while simultaneously appealing to everyone since. The film is actually and literally a remake of "Being There", which is no small project and entirely unlikely to succeed. Chancey Gardiner is not allowed to leave his home until he is at least 60 years of age and those 20 years make quite a difference, but clearly the absurdity needed to be toned down. Chancey likewise has had even fewer people in his life, namely 2.3 composed of his adopter, nanny, and someone who fixed the wall. He is forced out of the home because a lack of documentation leaves him claimless to the house. He is forced into the world, while Andy has sidelined the world by choice and blithely so. 40yov can be labeled an intelligent recreation, since it rather drastically changes most elements of the film to where most viewers will not see the analogy and actual identity. I recommend a full pardon and fully condone the decision and motivation of the creators. I would go so far as to thank them for the exposure they will be giving to my favorite film of 7 years and creating a perfect experience for everyone.
The second part of the film takes a rather different approach. The story eases back into convention, while Andy struggles to fully understand normality. I am not going to elaborate this section, but Andy suddenly becomes quite fearful of how sex could ruin his first relationship. The filming is cheap, but neutral, never adding or subtracting from the key elements of the film. The set and costume designs demonstrated some mastery and enhanced how Andy's absence from the world has let him escape from it. Of course 40yov had a substantial amount of lessons, all of which were directly related to the film and valid. You may see some good Bergman, Jarmusch-Murray, and Van Sant masterpieces in the next few weeks, but they will have some serious competition in 40yov. Vote: 9.3