Don’t even bother with this movie. I can’t.
Pururambo [2005]
My roommate thought I was absolutely crazy for watching this documentary and I’m not quite sure why. It is a short-ish documentary by a Slovakian filmmaker who basically grabbed a camera and decided to walk right on into the jungles of New Guinea. He got some pretty raw footage, complete with a tribe leader running around and threatening to shoot the film crew with arrows for trespassing (shown in the clip I found on youtube, sorry it’s in a different language). All in all, I was fascinated.
P.S. It is on Netflix Instant!
Warrior (2011)
A friend on facebook saw this movie in theaters and raved about how this movie was 10x better than The Fighter (2010) and I couldn’t believe her… until I saw it for myself. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton play estranged brothers whose childhood was scarred by their alcoholic father. Hardy’s character is a retired Marine, Edgerton plays a father just trying to provide for his family. Both brothers (seen as underdogs) make it to this “superbowl” of MMA tournament in Atlantic City and duke it out for the 5 million dollar grand prize.
The movie has a slow start but the crescendo in the end is well worth it. I would definitely recommend this movie to others. 4.5/5
The Piano (1993)
To continue my theme of “bad ass little girl” childhood actor roles, Anna Paquin plays a very outspoken little girl, Flora, who travels from Scotland to New Zealand with her mute pianist mother, who has been set up in an arranged marriage. I realize that Flora merely plays a supporting role in the overall story, but seeing as her mother had no dialogue whatsoever (though Holly Hunter’s performance was almost equally as stunning), it was kind of hard not to pay just a little more attention to her.
The soundtrack is beautiful, the story is interesting, and Anna Paquin’s performance is downright amazing (she won an Oscar for it). Agh, I always find it sad when actors peak in their childhood roles (i.e. Kirsten Dunst in An Interview with a Vampire)—Paquin as Flora in The Piano is 100x better than Paquin as Sookie in True Blood, just saying…
León: The Professional (1994)
Natalie Portman killed it (no pun intended) as 12-year-old Mathilda in this movie. She plays a bad ass little girl who is taken in by her neighbor after her parents and little brother are killed in her apartment. When she finds out the guy is an assassin she makes it her mission to avenge her little brother’s death.
Luc Besson wrote and directed this movie (he also wrote The Fifth Element, one of my favorites). I enjoyed this movie for the dialogue between the little girl and the assassin, less so for the action and violence. It was also filmed uptown in NYC so it automatically gets added to my ever-growing list of “favorite movies filmed in NYC”—I suppose I should create that list officially and share it soon! ;)
365films
In honor of the new year, I’ve decided to resurrect this blog. It is very possible that I watch at LEAST 365 films per year (probably more than that in 2009)… so here goes…
Dogtooth (2009)
This movie is a mindtrip. These parents decide to raise their 3 teenagers in what seems to be some kind of social experiment in which they are completely confined to living within the confines of the family’s estate (for the entirety of their lives). In the opening scene, the kids are listening to a taped recording of a vocabulary lesson in which the narrator is defining words incorrectly (i.e. they call the tablesalt a phone at the dinner table, and pick zombies, little yellow flowers, in their yard). One of their punishments for bad behavior is holding mouthwash in their mouth for an extended period of time.
It was nominated for an Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film of the Year this year (it’s in Greek). This movie is filled with numerous comical, awkward, and uncomfortable moments—I would definitely recommend it to those who like weird foreign films like myself.
The Wrestler (2008)
The main reason I decided to watch this film was because I recently saw Black Swan, LOVED IT, realized that I also loved Requiem for a Dream when I saw it, and then figured out that, hey, maybe I just really like Darren Aronofsky’s work. This movie was only alright. I am all about seeing cool/interesting pictures on the screen and this movie provided me with quite a few. I realize I probably should not be comparing this movie to the other two, but I think my main problem with it was that it’s just slow. and pretty sad.
To summarize, Mickey Rourke plays a professional wrestler whose retirement is long-overdue. He struggles with his life outside of the ring, a stripper for a friend (Marisa Tomei), and issues with his relationship with his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) who thinks he’s a total fuck-up.
3 Women (1977)
Let me just say right now that a young Sissy Spacek will forever haunt my dreams. She was creepy as hell in Carrie (1976), and she plays another creepy character in this film. Pinky Rose (Spacek) is a totally awkward teenage girl who moves into what looks like some desert in California to work in a nursing home. She becomes weirdly obsessed with one of her coworkers, Millie, a total loner outcast who seems to have a bad case of diarrhea of the mouth—the girl talks and talks but nobody ever listens to her. Anyway, they become roommates and certain events that occur create extreme role reversals among the women characters in the film. As time goes by things just start getting weirder and weirder… I’d say this movie is worth watching even if only for the extremely long buildup. Plus, as you’ll soon learn, I tend to enjoy weird movies. :)
Funny Girl (1968)
This happened to be on my Netflix homepage tonight so I decided I’d give it a try. I’m not normally one to watch musicals but was temporarily pleasantly surprised. I must say, though, that Barbra Streisand as “the comic,” Fanny Brice kind of reminds me of SJP as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City—it must be the similarity in looks (or lack thereof), and the fact that they’re both annoyingly charming (not sure how it works, but I suppose it keeps me watching… for a bit—notice that all of my screencaps are from the first half). Her “whatsamatta?” Brooklyn accent every couple of sentences and her aloofness makes her seem like a total alien in a cast of really boring people. Plainly put, Babs makes this melodrama, which wasn’t enough for me because I started getting bored after about an hour or so. So then I tried to focus on the visuals, which were lacking, as well. Sparkly costumes and red fuzzy wallpaper just ain’t my thang.
