The best recent film experience must be the formidable "Me and you and everyone we know", if not for it's fantastic title, then for the sheer beauty, the quiet smiles, the lovely story, the actors and the slow humour. I recommend it warmly to all those who are tired of being able to predict every scene, movment and comment of a standard hollywood feature.
An unsurprisingly disappointing film was the warrior film "Jarhead" with it's slightly critical rendering of a Desert Storm survivors confused and un-warlike stay in Iraq. Directed by Sam Mendez, I had expected a better choice of story, and some more depth. But there wasn't a whole lot. Soo in the end, i guess it was entertaining enough, but mostly for some good actors and a few jokes. And, I guess this is were movie-going becomes really a subjective experience, the best part for me was definetely when Tom Waits whisky voice began to whisper "This Box.."
then, on saturday night I was stranded in my apartment with nothing but the TV and my demons to keep me company. Needless to say, I locked my demons in the closet and sat in the living room with the volume up on the tv-set, watching. I ended up watching "Bringing out the Dead" by (I was surprised to read before the film, and still surprised after...) Martin Scorsese. It was the story of a burnout ambulance driver during a few nights in NYC. It was, kinda funny, kinda interesting in a filmmaker type of way, good actors again (Nicolas Cage, Pat Arquette) but there just was no point and no heart. Didn't like it. Wouldn't see it again, which is generally how I rate films in my head. Good films are films you want to see again. Again I was surprised that good directors choose stories that I dont like...
And to end, I want to tie a comment back to the experience of watching "Jarhead". I realised, as I neared the end, that the way movies move me is nowhere near how intensely I experience music. Which is to say that I can easily like or love a movie based on it's music and the way the music is woven into, or set as backdrop to, the story. One example is just "Jarhead" with the one-dur-ful Tom Waits song coming in at just the right moment. To me it was more like that the movie screen gave me an excuse to completely let the song envelop me. Another example is the Spanish film "Piedras", a semi-good drama about couples and love and loss, but which just got a big place in my heart due to a very good soundtrack and the sledgehammer beauty of an Ani Difranco song at just the right moment. Finally there are examples like "My life without me", "A la verticale de l'été" and "Kissing Jessica Stein" whos soundtracks are what brings them from good to Wonderful films.
--In the spirit of the visual media junkie I am.. some Zapp Brannigan memorables...
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards...Checkmate."
"We don't know anything about their race, history, or culture, but one thing's for sure. They stand for everything we stand against."
"if I said you had a beautiful body would you take your pants off and dance around a bit?"
