Movies

Amateur

This movie is directed by Hal Hartley. It's another one of those where a guy wakes up with amnesia and has to figure stuff out. As in "The Bourne Identity," he discovers he has some unusual skills. Other characters include a porn actress trying to change her life, an ex-nun trying to get into the porn-writing industry, an accountant trying to get away from bad guys, and bad guys. It's not really about porn or even about bad guys, it's more about changing your life, like the amnesiac thriller "Regarding Henry," although in an extra, the director said that the movie was about how you can never escape your past, even if you don't remember it. In the movie, the character gets treated differently than most people by those who do know him from before the injury. This certainly makes things difficult for him, though I don't like to think he never could escape.

The Cooler

I liked the movie. It's a love story, it's a mild thriller, and it's about a genuinely good main character. The acting is great. Warning: there is also violence, a genuinely evil character, nudity, and an overblown notion of the existence of good and bad luck.

Dangerous Beauty

This was about a woman in Venice in the 1500s, her true love, and how she made a living. The cinematography is beautiful. The woman's mother gives her advice you'd never expect. She is very good at what she does (I love competence on screen), and the movie addresses big issues such as war, epidemics, freedom, and the Inquisition. Rufus Sewell plays the love interest, and if I hadn't just seen "Dark City," I might have liked his character better. I'd give the movie 3.5 stars out of 5.

Dark City

This is a good movie. It's one of those where a guy wakes up with amnesia and has to figure stuff out. Again, we have a genuinely nice guy, and scary bad guys like in "The Matrix" and "The 13th Floor." Robin says it's the most expensive movie ever made, and it shows. It's just beautifully lit, and they have all the coolest cars and architecture from the 1930s through the 1970s. Warning: scary head drill things, but they don't show blood or anything.

The Fast Runner

This is a tale about love, jealousy, running for your life, and dealing with crime, set in another culture. During the first half of the movie, my main thoughts were, "What is going on?" and then "I guess when the life expectancy is low, you have a culture full of teenagers." The characters were always making fun of each other, crying, and getting into fights. But then I was wanting to look away every time they ate, because they mainly ate meat, and I was grossed out, which is also pathetic, so who am I to judge? The second half of the movie I was drawn into figuring out what plans the characters were concocting for each other while they went around acting as though they were no longer angry with each other. There was plenty of scary drama, but I didn't enjoy the movie enough to want to watch it again.

50 First Dates

I enjoyed this movie. All the reviews say that most of the acting sucks, the plot holes are huge, and the jokes are crude: not my kind of movie. So, I have to conclude that it was the psychology major in me taking over that made me like the movie. What if there really was a condition like that, where you forget everything overnight? How could someone be that person's friend? As in "Memento," her friends find lying to be a tempting coping strategy. One good thing is that the movie doesn't cheat and have her miraculously heal at the end; the characters work to find a good way to be with her. They show us three different strategies, which I quite enjoyed. And the best solution still involved daily trauma, so it helps keep things in perspective for those of us who don't have to deal with daily trauma. So although this is supposed to be some kind of fluffy-headed romance movie, I was crying my eyes out. But also laughing. There were lots of funny bits. And about half the funny bits were from the character played by Rob Schneider, who virtually every other reviewer agrees is playing an unfunny, vulgar character in a racist, one-dimensional way, so you can never trust a review from me again.

High Fidelity

If you like reading on-line journals, you'll probably like listening to the main character express himself to the camera. I enjoy watching a character learn some life lesson. One of his was that he was fearing commitments in order to keep himself flexible, but of course you want the flexibility so that when something good comes up, you can make a commitment to it. Of course other people err in the other direction. Jack Black steals the show with lines like, "There's no way your daughter could like that record. [Unless,] oh, is she in a coma?" It's too bad that the characters would mostly be unlikeable in real life. But then again, they have these extreme traits that I can't help sympathizing with. Like the guy who's rearranging his album collection, no, not by date, and definitely not alphabetically, but autobiographically. A crazy you-should-get-a-life activity, but then also awesomely ambitious in a way.

This is Spinal Tap

This is a fun movie with very listenable music--it sounds good, has funny lyrics, and captures various music types over the decades. The characters are mostly likeable, in spite of their huge shortcomings. Robin says he wouldn't have thought you could make fun of rock starts because they are already charicatures, but you can. Unfortunately, the arguments in the second half of the movie feel too realistic, so it's not a keeper.

Tokyo Godfathers

This movie was quite fun, especially for a movie about a baby thrown in a garbage pile, a runaway, drunken gamblers, and a suicidal kidnapper, many of whom are homeless throughout the movie. It's a Japanese anime epic adventure with action and romance. It shows both the beautiful and the seamy side of Tokyo, but both are beautiful in cartoon-land. Warning: nudity, subtitles, and a possibly confusing scene where the subtitles disappear and the Japanese starts sounding a lot like Spanish. (Don't worry; the other characters don't understand them either.) I learned how to say "homeless" and "Christmas present" in Japanese; it's the same as in English. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5.

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