Busy, busy, busy. Been meaning to post again for a few days, but finishing up my internship report took up a lot of time. However, I am finally done and have turned it in -- my last college assignment is finished. It was definitely my crowning moment of BS in college. Writing it was a boring, tiring experience, but in a way I am proud of it, because I will not bullshit at that level for quite a while. Hooray for me!
Anyway, a few things before I shill the hell out of some movies. I stopped the Beardwatch after a few weeks (mainly because I am lazy, but also because it got repetitive), but the whole thing has been grown in for a while, so here are a couple of pictures for the curious: Beard 1 and Beard 2! (SomeGuy gleefully pointed out that my using a mirror for these pics meant I was too God damn stupid to use my camera's timer mode. And he's probably correct.)
Also, Michi was drawing pictures of people last night in the chat (without references to actual pictures of us), and she drew a nice pic of me that I enjoyed very much. Very nice, Michi! High five!
OK, now to this week's movies -- a solid bunch here, including my first exposure to a very famous, influential director.
Bug (2006): Not sure how to feel about this, actually. It's directed well (by William Friedkin, who directed The Exorcist), and the acting is very good -- intense and quite creepy. But I'm not sure I enjoyed it much. It delves so deeply into darkness and insanity that I could not get anything out of it. Not that hopeless endings always repel me, mind (after all, my favorite movie ends with the world falling into nuclear Armageddon), but it hit me in a way that was hard to like. It is definitely a well-made movie, though.
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974): It is a lot different than what I expected, at least during the first hour, which explores the relationship between the main character, Bennie (Warren Oates), and his prostitute girlfriend, Elita (Isela Vega). There is a lot of weirdness and dark humor, but there are also some surprisingly sweet moments, which interested me (the director, Sam Peckinpah, is mainly known for telling bleak, violent stories). All that sets up the second half very well and gives it much more impact. Audiences and most critics despised this movie upon first release because of the level of violence; it less gory than it is in some movies today, but it is also very visceral and hard-hitting. Oates is pretty damn good in this, making Bennie at least somewhat sympathetic despite his numerous flaws and ever-deepening psychosis.
The Maltese Falcon (1941): Just as awesome the second time around. This is the quintessential film noir, although it lacks some of the stylistic elements the genre is known for (mainly the lighting). It's great fun, with a lot of awesome dialogue (much of it delivered by Humphrey Bogart, which made him into a star, even though Sam Spade is kind of an asshole if you think about it), interesting twists and turns and Peter Lorre in English. You can never have enough Peter Lorre. Ever.
Rashomon (1950): I thought it would be good to have my first exposure to Akira Kurosawa be the movie that made him famous. And, hey, what a shocker -- I loved it. What surprised me most upon first viewing is how simply made it is for having such a complex story (stories?). There are only three settings, and they are not really embellished in any way (unless you consider the constant rain at Rashomon gate to be an embellishment lol). This actually amplifies the intrinsic qualities of the settings, I think -- the bareness of the courtyard where each person is interrogated, the heaviness and confusion of Rashomon gate and the heat and mysteriousness of the woods. As for the story, I thought the different versions each person told were all interesting -- and, uh, yes, it is pretty much impossible to tell which is the real truth (which is the point, haha). One in particular sticks out to me as the most truthful, but I think that is because the person who tells it is easily the most likable of the bunch; there is actually a hole in that person's story that casts doubt on the tale. What amazes me most about the stories, though, is Tajomaru, the samurai and the samurai's wife could each tell a story where he or she is the killer, and yet comes across as the least despicable person. Bravo, humanity! Bravo!
Big Trouble in Little China (1986): Kurt Russell in a modern, over-the-top kung fu flick? I'm there! This is a hell of a lot of fun, with Russell's character being a hilarious subversion of the typical American action hero -- he's cocky as hell and tries to act cool all the time, but he fails quite frequently. Kim Cattrall and Kate Burton add just the right amount of overacting to their roles (Burton has a hilarious line where she summarizes their situation, and she sells it so thoroughly that it cracked me up). And, of course, there are a ton of crazy special effects and wicked awesome kung fu fighting. Fun fact: Mortal Kombat took a lot of obvious inspiration from this movie.
On the plate this week: Mildred Pierce (1945) and The Place Promised in Our Early Days (2004).
Movie Count: 76 (Live Free and Die Hard, Time Bandits, The Hustler, Black Dragon (Miracles), Hollywoodland, Blood Diamond, Animal Crackers, Marie Antoinette, Inside Man, The Fountain, Tombstone, Jurassic Park (Rifftrax), No Country for Old Men, Juno, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Rifftrax), There Will Be Blood, Rize, Born Into Brothels, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone, Hard Candy, The Matrix Reloaded (Rifftrax), Hot Fuzz, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Phone Booth, The Dark Knight, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Predator, Ratatouille, Renaissance, Pretty in Pink, Scanners, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Stop Making Sense, The Killing, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rifftrax), Voices of a Distant Star, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Amadeus, Touch of Evil, Paths of Glory, Gangs of New York, Five Easy Pieces, Perfect Blue, Novocaine, A Fish Called Wanda, A Hard Day's Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Out of the Past, The Lady from Shanghai, The Wild Bunch, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bringing Up Baby, Pleasantville, Citizen Kane, They Live, The Terminator, The Adolescence of Utena, The Castle of Cagliostro, The Professional, High Plains Drifter, In the Heat of the Night, Michael Clayton, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Munich, Traffic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bug, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Maltese Falcon, Rashomon, Big Trouble in Little China)
