I am going to make this short and sweet, because I have some things to do before Anime Club today. (By this evening I am probably going to hate online job applications, haha.)
Rumble Fish (1983): Francis Ford Coppola called this an "art film for teenagers." That sounds about right to me. The story -- which is a pretty basic tale of two brothers, one a former gang leader who is slowly drifting away from life and the other an aspiring gang leader who worships his brother and wants to follow in his footsteps -- is not at all the draw. Rather, it is the way the story is told that makes Rumble Fish worth seeing. The visuals are quite stylish. It feels as though the story is on the verge of destruction and something ominous is around the corner. The two brothers, played by Mickey Rourke and Matt Dillon, float through days in a booze-addled haze and struggle against alienation from the world and those they love. It would probably be accurate to say the movie gets a bit too cute, artsy and vague in the way it establishes the story and feelings of the characters, but the pure energy of Rumble Fish drew me in, although the story is a bit silly at times.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006): I am a sucker for stories about obsession, and this is one of the better stories I have seen of late. It is about a boy, Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw), who grows up in a poor, filthy area in 18th century France. What sets Grenouille apart from everyone else is that he possesses a sense of smell so strong that he can detect and dissect just about any existing odor. Grenouille dedicates his life to mastering his ability; to do this, he eventually studies with an out-of-his-prime perfumist, Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman), and soon journeys on his own to distill the scent of humanity into the perfect perfume. I like that the movie emphasizes the destructive quality of Grenouille's obsession (every time Grenouille leaves someone, that person dies, and this is true from the time of Grenouille's birth). He is single-minded in his desire to forge the world's most potent perfume, and this isolates him from humanity. The way in which the movie visually represents the sense of smell is remarkable, too.
On the queue for this week: In Bruges (2008), The Bank Dick (1940) and Marathon Man (1976)
Total movies: Total Movies: 39 (Gaslight, The Last King of Scotland, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Darjeeling Limited, This Film is Not Yet Rated, Diary of the Dead, Bullets Over Broadway, Interiors, Husbands and Wives, The Professional: Golgo 13, Lars and the Real Girl, Lolita, Quills, Hamlet, Iris, Manhattan Murder Mystery, The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, The Savages, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, The Stranger, Love and Death, Harold and Maude, Spartacus, Scarlet Street, Sabrina, Zelig, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Stardust Memories, Barry Lyndon, Be Kind Rewind, Radio Days, Deconstructing Harry, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Creating Rem Lazar, Undefeatable, Ninja Terminator, Ninja Dragon, Rumble Fish, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)
