Spring Breakers

If you were to tell me that I would be insanely excited for a movie starring Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens, I would think you were a crazy person. If you told me I would be insanely excited for a movie set during Spring Break, I would again think you were a crazy person. Yet, that is exactly what happened. When the film premiered last year, there were so many reviews talking about how great it was, or how awful it was. There was no in between whatsoever. When a movie generates those intense feelings on either side, chances are I am going to definitely be excited about it. As trailers started premiering, the movie started to just look bonkers. It appeared to be a movie about young, hot Disney girls doing drugs, having sex and shooting people while lit by bright neon colors and scored to Dub Step music. The Red Band trailers were stupid awesome. Whispers were starting about James Franco as a possible Best Supporting Actor nominee for his portrayal as a white thug drug dealer. He had cornrows and a grill! James Franco was rocking a grill! I had not idea if the movie would be a brilliant film, or a complete and utter disaster, but I knew I was starting to get more excited than I should be considering who is in it.

Faith (Gomez), Candy (Hudgens), Brit (Pretty Little Liars' bombshell Ashley Benson), and Cotty (Director's wife Rachel Korine) are four girls from a small town who dream of spending Spring Break in the sweaty, gorgeous Daytona Beach Florida. They have been friends since grade school and they are all miserable. They are searching for something more, and they believe they will find meaning on Spring Break. Faith also searches for it in in God, but they are all searching for where they belong and they do know they are not finding it in their normal college experience. Candy and Brit get a brilliant idea of how they can get enough money to truly go on spring break and live the good life. They enlist Cotty's help because they need a vehicle. With a squirt gun, ski masks and a hammer, the girls rob a diner and get away with it. They make their way south and end up partying like crazy for spring break. Eventually they are arrested for drugs on spring break, but they are bailed out by a creepy looking guy who goes by Alien (Franco). Alien is smitten by these four gorgeous bikini clad babes, but Faith is incredibly uncomfortable and soon leaves for home. It was the right call because soon the girls are caught up in a turf war between Alien and his rival Archie.

It is weird to think of Spring Breakers as an Art House Film, but it really is. Harmony Korine (director) has a reputation for incredibly inaccessible films and Spring Breakers is his coming out party to the mainstream, but that does not mean the film is mainstream. For me, Spring Breakers is one of those borderline genius movies that I cannot recommend to very many people because the appeal is going to be limited. The entire film is shot gorgeously, even in the depravity. The cinematography captures every gorgeous setting, every perfectly framed back light and of course, the camera knows how to make four gorgeous girls in bikinis look stunning while still capturing the sadness of everything. I am dying to see the shoot script, because I am curious as to how it looks. Spring Breakers is barely a narrative. It is not exactly non-linear, but it is not exactly linear either. There is minimal dialog. Instead, we have multiple long monologues or phone calls that acts as narration over scenes or montages. In fact, Spring Breakers often feels like a series of montages, set to repeated phrases and a booming, slick Dub Step soundtrack provided by Skrillex. There are lengthy shots of the girls staring off into the distance, or the girls goofing around in the halls of their dorms, and repeated shots of the girls riding scooters as they make calls home calling this the best experience of their lives.

If you are looking for the debauchery of spring break, there is plenty of that as well. The film opens with lots of shots of college girls flashing their tits, people grinding on each other, and just when you think everything is meant to be titillating, they will throw in a shot of a bunch of topless girls on the ground while guys pour beer on them from cans down by their junk, pretending to urinate on the girls. The film is clearly making a case that the debauchery is not titillating, it is starkly depraved and incredibly depressing. Spring break, as perpetrated by MTV for the last 15 years, has become a place where college kids become the most hedonistic versions of themselves. It is where they go to be anyone else and they do things they believe will not really follow them home. Spring Break is where Girls Gone Wild was born. It bred a culture of college kids doing anything they wanted as they searched to relax from the trials of college. Here, though, it is presented as just another form of the sadness in the lives of unfulfilled young people. The girls appear to be having the time of their lives, but nothing in the film really says that.

Spring Breakers really takes off when Franco is introduced. The guy is, without hyperbole, phenomenal. He embodies Alien without hesitation and without vanity. There is a scene between him, Hudgens, Benson and two pistols that will make it clear that he was going all in this film. Alien is a posturing, scary, wanna-be thug, who, at his core, is incredibly depressed. When he says "Spring Break Forever" he does not say it with enthusiasm. He says it with this lingering sadness. The man has money, drugs, an insane gun collection, a hit rap single and he is still searching for something to make him whole. He has created this thug character, but it is pretty clear early on that Alien is just a facade. He is not the thug he presents and he is a scared boy who just wants these girls to love him. Franco brings out the themes of loneliness, emptiness, and searching to such full revelation in every moment he is on screen. Gomez, Hudgens, Benson and Korine are serviceable, with Benson and Hudgens going to the very depths of their souls to bring out just how depraved their characters are. Gomez is out centerpiece for the first half, so it is a bit jarring when she exits the picture after the first half, but I think that is the point. For the first half, as scary, debauched and sad it is, we have this Faith character who is actually trying. We believe she will come out of this alright, and when she leaves, we are left with these three girls who are down for everything.

Spring Breakers is also excellently shot, especially the exterior tracking shot of the robbery. We have the slow point of view of Cotty, the driver, so we do not hear anything in the diner, so when they go back and show us what happened on the inside, it is that much more intense. When they show us what happened in the diner, it is cut with the girls reliving the robbery to Faith, and it is terrifying. It is scary, not because it is actually scary, but scary because these girls really believe they are that tough. They believe they are these people who take guns and rob people and they show no remorse. In fact, Brit, Candy and Cotty are turned on by it. Candy and Brit especially are turned on by the violence and the guns. This becomes more clear during some darkly hilarious, but downright scary moments with the Alien character. The soundtrack, which I mentioned helps sell the movie, but because the entire soundtrack is Dub Step, it makes one scene that uses a Britney Spears song, even more perfect. Franco's complete lack of irony as he sits at the piano and sings out the ballad "Every Time" creates this moment where you are not sure if laughter is what you are supposed to do, but you realize that is the point. The movie generates seriously uncomfortable moments of dark humor, but the montage/scene set to this song create the most uncomfortable of laughs, but that is only if you understand the film. It will probably go over the heads of so many people.

Spring Breakers is not for everyone, but here I am nearly a week later and it is still something I think about multiple times a day. I feel like this review has only captured my most surface thoughts on how I feel about the movie and what I think the movie is trying to do. It is not the deconstruction of Disney Princesses like I thought it would be. It is operating on a whole other level. I believe the film succeeds with any four young attractive actresses, if I am being completely honest. yes, it is jarring to see Selena Gomez smoking, and to see Vanessa Hudgens snort cocaine takes some getting used to, but I think it would work with other actresses. I will say this, the threesome scene generating controversy is jarring for a number of reasons. First, it is oddly intimate for this kind of film. There is no nudity minus bare asses, so it does not really feel exploitative or particularly erotic, but there is a rawness to it that borders on erotic. However, what jarred me the most about it was how separate from the film it felt, and how necessary it felt to me. For a moment before the truly depraved, depressing sociopath-like climax, the entire picture slows down and does its version of romance. It is not romantic, but for these characters, in this setting, with the finale looming over them, it is actually romance for them. It might be the only moment of the film where the characters do not feel the void of emptiness.

If you are expecting something tidy and clean, do not go see this film. It will leave you with lingering thoughts of sadness. It will make you wonder about who these people are and it will make you wonder how the characters truly feel change when it is over. It does not offer answers to any of these questions. It is clear that something snapped in a few of the characters and perhaps spring break offered a few of them the truths they were seeking, even if to the audience, those truths are truly frightening. Spring Breakers will probably end up on my top 10 for the year, and it is a movie I will probably want to discuss with every person I know who sees it, but I am not recommending it to anyone, because my guess, there are tons of people who will see it and loathe everything about it. It does not promote drugs, violence, promiscuous sex or robbery, but the condemning of it does not exactly happen either. For those expecting to be titillated, it will disappoint you as well. yes, the girls look great prancing around in various bikinis for 80% of the movie, and there are tons of naked girls throughout, it really all comes off as sad, which is exactly the point.

My All Time Favorite Movies: (500) Days of Summer)

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on my all time favorite movies for a little while now. Working at a movie theater again has started all of these conversations about movies and I always love to hear what people have on their lists of favorite movies. I decided I would take my 20 favorite movies of all time and write a blog entry about each of them. There are no set qualifications for a movie to be on this list. These are simply my 20 favorite movies of all time. They will not be numbered. Do not assume that I am going in order from 20-1. I will probably do that starting at 10, but honestly 11-20 are not numbered. They kind of exist right outside of the top 10. A few things you will realize as the list goes on are how recent so many of them are, and how Americanized the list is. I make no apologies for this. I know most people who are deep into film as I am often have many movies from the pre-1970s on their lists, but you will only find 2 or 3 of those here. I do not dislike "classic" movies in any way, but they have never stuck with me as much. I respect the craft, but I am rarely left feeling like they are my favorite movies. I cannot really explain it further than that. I am not xenophobic, but when it comes to cinema, I just prefer the American Aesthetic. I have roughly 10 foreign films that I love, but they do not make it into this list. Again, it is just my personal taste. Each post will be labeled as "favorite ever" so you can easily find them as I go on. As always, I love to hear feedback, if not on my choices, on your choices for some of your favorite movies of all time. Okay, onto this week's post. Oh and there will probably be spoilers about each title on the list.



Not going to lie, I tried to create this list without this movie. Not because I feel guilty for loving it, but because I am not sure how I feel about putting it on my favorite movies of all time list. However, I want to be honest with myself and the few people who read this thing and if I am being completely honest, (500) Days of Summer is absolutely one of my all time favorite movies. In fact, I can count the amount of movies I watched more than this one on one hand. I saw it more than any other movie in theaters (tied with Liar Liar, and Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring) and since it came out on DVD, I cannot even remember how many times I have watched it. My girlfriend and I have the movie poster up in our dining area and a mini for it in the downstairs bathroom. Hell, I even taught it to my seniors last year as a way to show them how film can be read as literature and I gave them an in class essay about it and I learned even more about the film. I think that is why I love it so much, every time I watch it, I can approach it from a different angle and I can pick up something, or realize something or just appreciate something different with each viewing.

(500) Days of Summer concerns the relationship between Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) which spans 500 turbulent days. There is an omniscient narrator who tells us right off the bat that "This is a story of boy meets girl, but it is not a love story." From the very start of this film, we realize this is not going to be a traditional romantic comedy and it definitely is not. Tom believes Summer is the one from the moment he sees her. Summer very clearly states she is not interested in a relationship, and they become friends. Summer knows that Tom is into her, but he never fully says it because he just wants her in his life and because of that, it gets tricky when they start kissing, going on adorable dates to Ikea, and start having sex. Are they a couple or are they not a couple? Who knows? Clearly neither of them know. Tom believes they are, Summer maintains that they are just friends. This back and forth could get old quickly, but the great thing about the script is that the story unfolds in a non-linear fashion. We get the good mixed with the bad. We get the humor followed by the sadness. The film never lets us wallow in the sadness for very long and it never lets us celebrate the happiness for too long. It creates this wonderful blend of emotions and it is not afraid to smack us around with them. My favorite transition is from the morning after the first sex to the first day post break up.

Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel have remarkable chemistry and it would make me happy if they could be in any more movies together. They are both certainly in their respective elements with these characters, and in my opinion, they make them feel real. I know Tom Hansen, hell I might be Tom Hansen. Summer is often mislabeled as a bad person and the cause of Tom's heartbreak, but Deschanel plays her very real and I believe that the idea of the film is to play with the idea of the Manic Pixie Girl in the same way that Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind did. Summer is not going to save Tom. She is not magical. Tom never listens to her when she states what she is looking for. Tom has unilaterally decided she is the one who he will be with forever. The movie is vague on what it wants Summer to be, and that is another reason why I love it. If I am in a good mood, I view the movie as optimistic and real and heartfelt. If I am in a bad or sad mood, I loathe Summer to her very core and I bawl my eyes out repeatedly. it is not easy for a movie to be approached in such drastic ways for the viewer and it is quite an accomplishment. The supporting roles from Tom's friends, his little sister (played perfectly play Chloe Grace Moritz) and Tom's boss (played by Agent S.H.I.E.L.D's Agent Coulson) are all perfect and only drive home the point that this story is from Tom's point of view. We are supposed to, at first, see Summer only as Tom sees her.

Marc Webb, first time director, does great things with a great script. The screen writers, Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, crafted a pretty straight forward story in a very unique way. The morning after the couple first has sex, Tom comes out dancing to Hall & Oates' "You make my Dreams Come True" complete with back-up dancers, UCLA's marching band and a cute animated blue bird to emphasis the point that Tom believes that he has just had sex with the woman he will marry. He even looks in a window and sees his reflection as Han Solo (something all men have done whether they admit it or not). We have the aforementioned non-linear narration technique of the film. There are sections in black and white and Tom, as he sits alone in a dark movie theater, even envisions sad student Avant-garde films in which he is the star. The film also uses music to perfection. In a very happy scene The Temper Trap's "Sweet Disposition" plays, then later in the film, when Summer and Tom reconnect, the song plays again,, giving us the impression that things just may end up going well for the young couple. Many of my students even said they did not believe the narrator when he said it was not a love story because of this scene. They wanted to be believe because of how the mood was set up by the music, the lighting and how the two young people were framed together with the sunset in the back and flowers in the background.

All of that is great, but there is one scene that sort of drives this movie to my list. It is a scene to which every person can relate, I believe. As Tom goes to a party hosted by Summer, the film goes to a split screen and on one side we see Tom's expectations and on the other side we see the reality. This is after the break up, and after months of not seeing each other before the scene I mentioned in my last paragraph. His expectations and the reality are so grossly different that it hurts to watch them side by side. I have seen movies press forward with the expectations only to pull back and reveal it was in the character's head and then go forward with the reality, but to see them side by side just hurts. It is an achingly brilliant move on whomever decided to go that way. It is like that in the shooting script, but who knows if Webb had input there. That scene will crush you because we have all done it. We have all seen what we want to happen in our heads, only to see reality go in a completely different direction. In a movie full of hilarious moments and sad moments, this scene is easily the most crushing. The scene even ends with Hansen no longer a human being, but a sketch in one of his architectural creations as all of his surrounding are being erased to a sad poignant song.

(500) Days of Summer will frustrate you, make you cry and make you laugh. I think, though, in the end, it gives you hope. It makes you believe in the search for true love, even though it hurts when it does not go your way. it deconstructs our idea of what a romantic comedy is supposed to be and it perfectly deconstructs the character tropes of the genre. It has a kick ass soundtrack that is made more kick ass by how each song is used in the film. The non-linear narrative technique serves the film in a variety of ways, but mostly it keeps the film from feeling too sad in the second half. The performances, direction, script and editing are all top notch. It does not over stay its welcome at a brisk 95 minutes and it leaves you feeling something. I will not say what you will be left feeling by it, but I do not know anyone who did not feel something when the film was over. half of my students hated me for playing it for them because it felt too real, but that was kind of the point. This is a movie that I know in 20 years I will still watching and enjoying and I hope that if you have not seen the movie, this make you want to see it and I hope that if you have seen it, this gives you something new to think about.

My All Time Favorite Movies: Taxi Driver

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on my all time favorite movies for a little while now. Working at a movie theater again has started all of these conversations about movies and I always love to hear what people have on their lists of favorite movies. I decided I would take my 20 favorite movies of all time and write a blog entry about each of them. There are no set qualifications for a movie to be on this list. These are simply my 20 favorite movies of all time. They will not be numbered. Do not assume that I am going in order from 20-1. I will probably do that starting at 10, but honestly 11-20 are not numbered. They kind of exist right outside of the top 10. A few things you will realize as the list goes on are how recent so many of them are, and how Americanized the list is. I make no apologies for this. I know most people who are deep into film as I am often have many movies from the pre-1970s on their lists, but you will only find 2 or 3 of those here. I do not dislike "classic" movies in any way, but they have never stuck with me as much. I respect the craft, but I am rarely left feeling like they are my favorite movies. I cannot really explain it further than that. I am not xenophobic, but when it comes to cinema, I just prefer the American Aesthetic. I have roughly 10 foreign films that I love, but they do not make it into this list. Again, it is just my personal taste. Each post will be labeled as "favorite ever" so you can easily find them as I go on. As always, I love to hear feedback, if not on my choices, on your choices for some of your favorite movies of all time. Okay, onto this week's post. Oh and there will probably be spoilers about each title on the list.



If I am being completely honest, I would not consider Martin Scorsese one of my 5 favorite directors, but he is one of only 2 directors to have two films on my list, unless you count the Lord of the Rings movies as 3 different films (they will appear as 1 film on my list). I love many of his movies, but if I had to list 5 favorites he would barely miss the cut. His filmography is full of excellent to brilliant movies and his early work with De Niro as his lead as exceptional. I know if people are going to choose between Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, most will choose Raging Bull and I completely understand why. It is a technical marvel. It is a master film work, but for some reason, Taxi Driver is the movie that lingers for me. it is my second favorite Scorsese movie and my all time favorite Robert De Niro performance. It is a testament to the performance that it features probably the most parodied moment in cinematic history (The "you talkin' to me" scene) and yet when I watch Taxi Driver, I am still mesmerized by that moment and by that performance in general. De Niro is electric. He is electric in a way that makes you sad for what his career has become in the last 10 to 12 years. he is electric in a way where the line blurs between wanting him to succeed and fail in his quest of the film. His Travis Bickle is a world of confused and conflicted, and De Niro takes us through a brilliant journey of nuance, bravado, menace, and even heart break in a weird way.

Taxi Driver is the story of a Vietnam Veteran struggling to acclimate back into real life and since he cannot sleep any way he decides to become a late night cab driver to earn money from his insomnia. What makes the film so brilliant is watching his slow descent into madness. At first Bickle looks like your average guy and we are not entirely sure what it is going on, but he starts to crack. We see signs of frustration. He starts to get his body back in shape and looks like he is preparing for some sort of vigilante style war. Scorsese is a master film maker and he knows exactly when to take his time and when to let the movie fly. He and his editor understand how pacing of a movie like this can make or break it and everything moves in such a perfect way. The starts and stops are always unnerving because we just want to see what is going to happen. What makes the film especially brilliant is how it plays with perception of reality and fantasy. People get so upset over the perceived indeterminate ending, but I remember seeing this for the first time when I was probably 15 and thinking it was so perfect that we never know how much of the film was reality and how much was in Bickle's twisted fantasy.

Another thing that makes this film so perfect is the supporting performances. Harvey Keitel has what amounts to a cameo role that he does so much with, you wish there was more. Of course, the big find in this movie was Jodie Foster. As a 14 year old girl playing a 12 year old prostitute that Bickle feels the need to save, Foster is outstanding. he conveys depth way beyond her years and she finds a way to live inside this tough street wise little girl, but still make her vulnerable. You feel bad for everything that is going on around her that you forget this is a young actress doing all of this excellent work. Scorsese has always gotten amazing performances are out great actors, and he shows a deft touch in dealing with Foster's 12 year old character.

However, if you want my opinion, the real star of this show is the screenplay. The dialog is unforgettable. The story is juicy, relevant even today and creates this fully realized character in Travis Bickle. Paul Schrader wrote a gorgeous fever dream of a film and the right pieces were put in place to make it the terrific film it is. If you are mesmerized by the score from the beginning as New York is shown as a blurred out hazy dream, I do not know what to say to you. I feel like Taxi Driver is one of those films that works because the team was completely in sync. There is not a scene out of place, not a performance behind the others and Scorsese stands behind the camera as the mastermind behind this perfect snap shot of 1970s film making. Plus you have to love a movie that over 30 years later is still lighting up message boards with questions, theories and controversies over what exactly happened.

Jack the Giant Slayer

The first question you are probably going to ask yourself about 25 minutes into this movie is the following: Back in the times of swords and horses, was it customary for someone to have a Faux-Hawk? If that sounds ridiculous, it is, but I could not stop focusing on Ewan McGregor's Faux-Hawk which is made more ridiculous by every other character having longer hair, the way we are used to thinking of people of that time period wearing their hair. Yet, in the middle of all of that, there is this stupidly modern hair cut on the head of the lead security guard essentially. It is the starting point of problems for Jack the Giant Slayer. Perhaps if you are totally loving the movie you do not notice it, but when everything is kind of a mess, you start notice all of the nonsense and it is hard to beat a Faux-Hawk in the category of nonsense. Even in a contemporary movie a Faux-Hawk is distracting!

Jack grew up without a mom, but he remembers her telling him stories of Giants. Monks created magic beans in hopes of climbing to Heaven to meet God, but ended up coming face to face with Giants. The Giants went down to Earth and started wreaking havoc all over until the Kingdom created a crown fused with Giant blood that gave the crown wearer instant control over the Giants and under the king's control, the giants climbed back up to stay. Erik the Great, the King, was buried with the remaining beans and the crown. Cut to 15 years later and Jack (Nicholas Hault) is a bit grown up and living with his uncle. They are poor and Jack heads off to the market to sell his horse and buggy. While there he sees a damsel in distress and he hurries to her rescue. The damsel turns out to be Princess Isabelle (Eleanor Tomlinson). However, in the fracas, Jack's carriage was stolen. With just his horse in tow, jack slinks off to home, but is accosted by a monk who tells Jack that he needs Jack's horse. he will pay him well, but he does not have money that second. He does have beans and that if he gives the beans to Jack and Jack takes the beans to the monastery the next day, he will be paid handsomely. When Jack agrees, the monk tells Jack not to let the beans get wet. When he returns home, Jack tries to explain to his irate uncle, and it does not go well. His uncle storms off to sell Jack's parents things in town so they can eat that week. A storm hits and in the middle of the night Jack is visited by the princess, who was trying to escape the castle because she will be forced to marry Roderick, a man twice her age at least. A bean gets wet, a giant beanstalk sprouts up and the princess is carried up into the sky.

I have no idea where the kingdom in this movie is, but there is something illogical about it. It appears to rain every night and be completely sunny every day. Is there some sort of weather phenomena that causes such a thing to happen? Every morning it is sunny, but when the sun goes down, it pours rain and screams with thunder. If I lived there, I would move. Once Jack, Roderick and Elmont (McGregor) get into the Giant's town, the movie gets even worse, if possible. The Giants are all crude disgusting creatures who are not even the least bit intimidating because they spend so much time picking their noses, burping, scratching their asses and slurring their words. Not sure why EVERY SINGLE GIANT had to be a disgustingly crude being, but I guess that is just how giants have to be. It is tough to be scared of a giant when you are just being grossed out be his need to eat his boogers. Apparently giants have the same mentality as a toddler. Good information to have if I ever come across a giant, I will just flash my keys in front of him and he will be distracted.

When even Stanley Tucci is terrible in a movie, you know something is wrong. Tucci should shine as the evil mastermind in this movie, but he looks bored out of his mind. he cannot even be bothered to be an over the top villain, which would have been awesome. Hault, who I loved in Warm Bodies, is totally bland here and his chemistry with Tomlinson is basically nonexistent. I never believed they were into each other. McGregor is swashbuckling enough for the role and he does a good job, but I just never got over his ridiculous hair.

That being said, the climax is completely awesome. Once the giants get down on the ground and start trying to bust into the kingdom, the movie really takes off. the giants become menacing, for one. The effects finally look great, especially when the giants light trees on fire and toss them into the kingdom. The action is well paced and the switch between the big fight and Jack and Isabelle's race through the kingdom to warn the surrounding kingdom's by sounding a bell is perfectly edited. I loved the initial chase through the open field and there is a great shot of the giants busting through the woods. For most of the final 30 minutes, I was completely entertained and my opinion of the movie was totally changing. Then they had to go and add a completely obnoxious and pointless epilogue to the film that takes the story into modern times. No one needs that!! No one cares! Go away with all of that noise!

Final Grade: D

My All Time Favorite Movies: Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on my all time favorite movies for a little while now. Working at a movie theater again has started all of these conversations about movies and I always love to hear what people have on their lists of favorite movies. I decided I would take my 20 favorite movies of all time and write a blog entry about each of them. There are no set qualifications for a movie to be on this list. These are simply my 20 favorite movies of all time. They will not be numbered. Do not assume that I am going in order from 20-1. I will probably do that starting at 10, but honestly 11-20 are not numbered. They kind of exist right outside of the top 10. A few things you will realize as the list goes on are how recent so many of them are, and how Americanized the list is. I make no apologies for this. I know most people who are deep into film as I am often have many movies from the pre-1970s on their lists, but you will only find 2 or 3 of those here. I do not dislike "classic" movies in any way, but they have never stuck with me as much. I respect the craft, but I am rarely left feeling like they are my favorite movies. I cannot really explain it further than that. I am not xenophobic, but when it comes to cinema, I just prefer the American Aesthetic. I have roughly 10 foreign films that I love, but they do not make it into this list. Again, it is just my personal taste. Each post will be labeled as "favorite ever" so you can easily find them as I go on. As always, I love to hear feedback, if not on my choices, on your choices for some of your favorite movies of all time. Okay, onto this week's post. Oh and there will probably be spoilers about each title on the list.



For the longest time when people asked me for a movie recommendation, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was the first movie I would recommend to people. Not very many people saw it in theaters and it was kind of lost on DVD at first. It was obscure enough that most people would not have seen it, but the star, Robert Downey Jr, was enough of a name, that people were willing to go with my recommendation and watch it. I never heard anyone say they did not enjoy the film. Honestly, I do not know anyone who has seen it that does not very much enjoy it. it is that kind of movie. It is witty, hilarious, action packed, and features dynamite performances. Written and directed by Shane Black and resurrecting the career of RDJ, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was an easy choice for this list. It is a movie I can watch no matter what mood I am and totally get a kick out of it. In fact, every time I watch it, I end up laughing at new things.

Shane Black is the screenwriter of Lethal Weapon and a series of action buddy cop movies in the late 80s and early 90s. He was the first screenwriter to make over a million dollars for a screenplay, but the 90s did not stay too kind to him and he sort of vanished. I love his screenplays. They are full of great dialog, but they are also very knowing. I love META movies and while his script for The Last Action Hero was mostly rewritten, he is responsible for the story of it and while I hated it as a teen, I loved it when I became more aware of cinematic language and how cinema worked. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang brought Shane Black back, but not just a screenwriter, as a director. I was probably one of a handful of people who actually saw it in theaters and I loved it instantly. When Jon Favreaux was getting ready to cast Ironman, he wanted RDJ because of his performance in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. In turn, RDJ helped Shane Black get the job to direct Iroman 3. Okay, time to get back to Kiss Kiss bang Bang.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the story of Harry Lockhart (RDJ), a two bit criminal who, as luck would have it, ends up at an audition for a television show and lands a visit to Los Angeles to maybe be on a detective show. He teams up with Gay Perry (Val Kilmer) and ends up trying to solve a real crime or is it two? Lockhart narrates the story, as it is a movie. the film has stops and starts as Lockhart remembers information he forgot to tell us, and he mocks the exposition process, even though he knows, and we know it is necessary. Of course, there is a girl, Harmoney (Michelle Monaghan) that Harry knew as a young boy, and who has grown up to be a wanna be actress, and is at the crux of the mystery.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the best META movie I have ever seen. it winks, nods and flat out tells us we are watching a movie, yet it never gets stale. RDJ gives an awesome performance as Harry Lockhart and his narration is pitch perfect. I love the dynamic between Harry and Gay Perry. Kilmer and RDJ are clearly having a blast with the script and having a blast together. I was really hoping they would both get the carerr resurrection off this movie, but I am glad at least one of them did. Their chemistry is exactly what you want it to be. I love how they fall into the buddy cop routine, but always with a little bit more bite. The movie keeps you guessing, sort of, throughout the story, but it is not really about that. It is about subverting our ideas on the old buddy cop formula, while also being this great pulp film. Here is a sample of how the film subverts the pulp style of dialog by staying true to it, but making it as ridiculous as it actually is:

Harry: Is she a looker?
Perry: She opens the door, and she got nothing on but the radio. Yeah, invites me to sit down, sits on my lap, fires up a spliff.
Harry: Geez. Really?
Perry: No. Idiot.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang has some great action as well, especially in the climax. There is enough action to keep things from ever getting stale, but the thing I love most about it, is how RDJ's character reacts to killing someone for the first time. So often in movies people kill someone and quickly move on, but here, the character looks changed. he reflects on it, even briefly to show, he is a man. The characters in this film are treated as people, even if it is very clear to us that it is just a movie. RDJ apologizes for forgetting key information at a key place. He mocks seemingly pointless information, that will clearly be important later and he, of course, swears a lot. Kilmer even apologizes to the Midwest for all of the swearing at the end of the movie. The comedy, though, is what keeps the movie together.

It is probably time for me to go back to this movie and just soak it all in. The pacing and editing are key as well because there are blanks to fill in and the film twists and turns around time to fill those in when needed. It never gets confusing because everyone on the film is doing top notch work. There are scenes that veer into the ridiculous, but you are willing to let the movie go there, because it KNOWS it is ridiculous. It is a movie after all. I love to watch this movie after watching a series of buddy cop movies because it makes the jokes taste that much better going down. Also, if you do not fall in love with the dialog, something is probably wrong with you. If you are still among those who have not seen this wonderful film, do yourself a favor and get it, watch it, and love it!

Oz The Great and Powerful

You should all know, I was not terribly interested in this movie. the trailers did nothing to sell me on it, but even before the trailers, I thought it sounded like a terrible idea. Hell, when I first heard about it when Robert Downy Jr. was attached, I thought it sounded stupid. I am not why we are in a place in popular culture where we want to give back stories to all of these characters that have existed in one way for so long. A&E is about to premiere a television show showing how Norman Bates came to be Norman Bates from Psycho. it looks great, but do we really need it? DO we really want to attribute reason and emotion to our scariest villains? Did we not learn our lesson with Darth Vader? Did learning his back story enrich our vision of who Darth Vader was? I submit that it did not. When I watched the Wizard of Oz as a child I never once wondered about the character of Oz. I never wondered how he happened into Oz and became the great king of the Emerald City. I never once wondered how the Wicked Witch came to be the Wicked Witch. I just knew her cackle was terrifying and that she was exactly what you think of when you think of a bad witch. I just did not care much about what happened before The Wizard of Oz. The joy of free movies is that I do not have to be picky, so loaded with all of that, my girlfriend and I set off to the land of Oz.

Small time Magician, Oz(James Franco) is nothing more than a con man who cannot resist a pretty face. After a particularly bad show in Kansas, Oz has to make a great escape to not get beaten to death by the strong man of the traveling circus because Oz slept with the strong man's wife. Oz hops aboard a hot air balloon and thinks he has gotten away scot-free, until he realizes he is heading straight for a giant twister. As he thinks he is about to die, he pleads to a higher power to spare his life and he will become a great man, and stop being a two bit con man. His balloon lands and he finds himself transported to a magical land called Oz. He is met by a beautiful witch, Theodora (Mila Kunis) who tells Oz that he must be the witch that the prophesy speaks of. Why you ask, well the prophesy states that a wizard carrying the same name as the city , Oz, would come, save them and become king. Oz, ever the con man, proclaims to be the powerful wizard Oz because he cannot resist power and a beautiful woman. As they travel to the kingdom, Oz, woos Theodora who immediately believes they will be married. When they reach the castle, Oz meets Theodora's sister, Evanora who tells Oz he must kill the Wicked Witch before he can become king. To kill her, he just needs to destroy her wand, the source of her power. Oz sets off with his Monkey slave (a cute and creepy CGI monkey voiced hilariously by Zach Braff)to find and kill the Wicked Witch. On their travels they encounter China Girl (voiced by Joey King). China Girl is a seriously adorable little child made of porcelain whose entire family was murdered by some seriously scary flying baboons. She joins them on their hunt, but everything is not what it appears to be in Oz. The Wicked Witch turns out to be Glinda the Good (Michelle Williams) and Oz soon joins her. Of course Glinda knows he is not really a wizard, but she needs the people to believe in him and for him to believe in himself.

Oz The Great and Powerful is an incredibly mixed bag. I am not sure I have ever felt this much love and hate towards one movie. Visually the film is absolutely stunning. It is the first movie I have seen in 3D that actually looked good in 3D. In fact, I think it does actually add to the experience, which I have never said before. The colors are lush and gorgeous. The camera work is fluid and luscious and so many of the set pieces are just breath taking. The action is shot in a way that makes the 3D makes you flinch over and over again, and Raimi's trademark POV shots are all excellent. The camera becomes a character over and over again. If nothing else, the film is a gorgeous moving piece of visual art. The colors are the most vibrant shade, and the levels of color are rich. When the 3D is needed, things fly at you with such gusto that I literally flinched 6 or 7 times. The sequence in the graveyard with the fog is genuinely haunting and any time the baboons are on screen, it might be among the more terrifying PG rated film making. In fact, the movie works better when the action is scarier. That should not surprise any fan of Sam Raimi. There are quite a few Sam Raimi trademarks, including a cameo by the great Bruce Campbell.

I also found James Franco to be perfect in a mad scientist kind of way. His energy level is go go go throughout the movie and he plays Oz as always looking for a way to charm someone and because of this, there is always a glint in his eye and a smile on his face. He has to carry the picture and I was surprised at great of a job he does. He effortlessly breezes through charming the trio of leading ladies, and watching him freak out over all of the gold was a high point for me. I love when he went all Scrooge McDuck all over it. He gives the movie an energy level that unfortunately the rest of the cast cannot really sustain. I found his interactions with Braff to be great, and Braff is great. I am sure so much of his dialog was improvised because he sounds far from the rest of the script. The China Girl will break and warm your heart, but she also has spunk, which was a nice addition.

Everything else was terrible. The story was awful, the plotting of the story was not only sadly predictable, but boring. I found the pacing of the film to be extremely off putting and if the backdrop had not been so perfect, I would have been bored several times. The script was very uneven. Raimi likes to bring a sort of B-movie quality to his movies that I appreciate, but here much of it just missed the mark. Mila Kunis, who I adore, gave one of the worst performances I have seen in a while. Kunis can play dark (see Black Swan)but she cannot play evil. I was embarrassed for her watching her try to get all evil and try to match Franco's energy. She was not anywhere near his level and really brought the second half of the movie to a screeching halt. Disney is also forbidden by MGM to use the green of the witch, so the actual Wicked Witch is this awful neon shade of green and her face is not allowed to look the same because MGM trademarked it, so the face just looks ridiculous and not terribly scary. It is not hard for me to understand why I have seen so many people walk out of the movie early. Story wise, Oz The Great and Powerful is truly awful.

Here I sit the next day and my feelings are no less mixed. As a visual spectacle, the movie is definitely worth seeing. I have no idea if it looks as good in 2D, and I did not pay, so it is easy for me to say it was worth it to upgrade to 3D. Franco does some pretty great work considering I thought he was poorly cast as the lead of a big budget CGI heavy film and to be honest, there are times when he is acting opposite something CGI where he looks like he knows it is ridiculous. I enjoyed the two supporting CGI characters and Raimi does some great work with the camera, the 3D effects and the landscape. However, the movie is a boring mess, with a anti-climatic finish and a story that makes no sense in places. A sequel has already started being written and I have no clue how in the world they are going to make a sequel that is not a remake of The Wizard of Oz because of how this one ends. Honestly, by the time the movie reached the end, I stopped caring about the movie and just enjoyed looking at the pretty things. It was such a weird experience to love and hate a movie as much as I did with this one. I really do not recommend the movie unless you can afford the 3D because I definitely cannot recommend it for the story.

Final Grade: C

My All Time Favorite Movies: The Dark Knight

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on my all time favorite movies for a little while now. Working at a movie theater again has started all of these conversations about movies and I always love to hear what people have on their lists of favorite movies. I decided I would take my 20 favorite movies of all time and write a blog entry about each of them. There are no set qualifications for a movie to be on this list. These are simply my 20 favorite movies of all time. They will not be numbered. Do not assume that I am going in order from 20-1. I will probably do that starting at 10, but honestly 11-20 are not numbered. They kind of exist right outside of the top 10. A few things you will realize as the list goes on are how recent so many of them are, and how Americanized the list is. I make no apologies for this. I know most people who are deep into film as I am often have many movies from the pre-1970s on their lists, but you will only find 2 or 3 of those here. I do not dislike "classic" movies in any way, but they have never stuck with me as much. I respect the craft, but I am rarely left feeling like they are my favorite movies. I cannot really explain it further than that. I am not xenophobic, but when it comes to cinema, I just prefer the American Aesthetic. I have roughly 10 foreign films that I love, but they do not make it into this list. Again, it is just my personal taste. Each post will be labeled as "favorite ever" so you can easily find them as I go on. As always, I love to hear feedback, if not on my choices, on your choices for some of your favorite movies of all time. Okay, onto this week's post. Oh and there will probably be spoilers about each title on the list.



THE DARK KNIGHT

It is impossible for me to have an all time favorites movie list and not have a superhero movie on it. As a kid who grew up reading comic books, and loving movies, the marriage of superheroes and cinema just makes perfect sense. There are a handful of excellent superhero movies (the Avengers might end up on this list some day), but I decided to go with the one that I feel made the most out of the film medium. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight is the apex of superhero cinema because it is not a typical superhero movie. In a weird way, it is not Batman's story at all. The Dark Knight is a classic battle of good vs. evil, but it constantly blurs the line between good and evil. It blurs to the point where the hero must become the villain to maintain order. Hell, it even makes us wonder who the true hero is? Is Batman really our hero, or is it Harvey Dent? Batman is the superhero of course, but as a vigilante, is he really a hero? In a movie chalk full of great quotes, the most telling quote is from Dent when he says "You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain." We spend this whole movie waiting for the inevitable transformation of Harvey Dent into Two-Face, but Aaron Eckhart's Harvey Dent is so noble, is so much the good guy, we start to wonder how in the world he will ever turn into this villain. Well, Nolan's film has an ace up its sleeve (you thought I was going to say Joker didn't you?) That ace is Heath Ledger's Joker.

With The Joker, Heath Ledger created a new iconic version of an already iconic character. Do you have any idea how difficult it must have been to recreate a character who has been iconic in so many ways? Well, Ledger was clearly up to the task. Maniacal, energetic and scary beyond belief, Ledger's Joker completes the trifecta of best villains with Darth Vader and Voldemort. What makes The Joker so scary, beyond the painted face and the scars, is his desire for nothing but pure chaos. That is what makes Nolan's film so perfect for our time. A villain who wants nothing but to create chaos has to be the scariest kind of villain. He wants nothing. He just wants to watch the world burn. Has there ever been a villain who had no real desire for world domination or something tangible? In a post 9/11 world, is there anything scarier than a motiveless villain and has anyone encapsulated that idea better than Heath Ledger as the Joker? Every scene he is in bristles with manic energy. He is completely riveting and we hang on every word out of his mouth. The ultimate tragedy of Ledger himself makes the role even more frightening because it is impossible to separate the two, but, even on its own, his Joker is one of my favorite performances ever. There are depths to the insanity that create a full flushed out character, something superhero villain almost always lack.

However, beyond just the story aspects, the film is a technical masterpiece. It is paced perfectly, so the story builds without feeling rushed, but when you feel like something needs to happen, something definitely does happen. Every single action scene is perfectly placed, perfectly shot and perfectly executed. How awesome is that bank robbery that opens the film? How much does it set off a movie that is going to be full of action, but also be this incredibly intense heist film? The Dark Knight manages to perfectly blend the superhero genre with the heist film and a detective film all while being a great superhero movie. In my opinion, Batman has never been the most interesting of superheroes. His villains are worlds more interesting, but Nolan's vision of Batman as a character and as a symbol really worked for me. We have Harvey Dent, the white knight hero, who stands for truth, justice and believes in the legal system and we have our dark knight, Batman, who believes in doing whatever he has to do to get justice. The movie never blatantly makes the symbolic nature of these characters in an eye rolling way and that is a testament to the grace of Nolan's film making abilities. Batman is the hero Gotham deserves and in essence, the hero we deserve.

The Dark Knight is a perfect movie for our current world. It plays on fears of the unknown, it taps into the idea that our phones can be used against us by our Government and it gives us a hero who is not exactly upstanding. it works in the grey area of our current world. Eckhart, Ledger and Bale make this crazy triangle of both good and evil. Eckhart is really the focal point of the film and by making Batman a supporting character, Nolan builds up the idea that Batman is merely a symbol, something he brings to a stark conclusion in the final film of the trilogy. Ledger stands heads and shoulders above most of the world with his performance, and the movie looks gorgeous. The cinematography is pitch perfect, and every single scene builds to this wonderful climatic crescendo. The screenplay is full of great quotes and each character is given a chance to grow and show depth. When you round out a cast with Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman and Gary Oldman, it makes it easy to have characters who matter and that is what is important. The Dark Knight makes us care about the stakes by making them high for every character. it presents Batman with a true challenge, because The Joker has absolutely nothing to lose. Nolan never loses sight of what truly matters in this film and thematically grounds it with terms we understand and in a world that is our world. He plays on our fears and gives us both the hero wish we had and the hero we actually have. It is not an easy feat to have a movie with two heroes and two villains and have one person be both the hero and villain, but Nolan executes it to perfection.

My All Time Favorite Movies: ALADDIN

I have been toying with the idea of doing a series of posts on my all time favorite movies for a little while now. Working at a movie theater again has started all of these conversations about movies and I always love to hear what people have on their lists of favorite movies. I decided I would take my 20 favorite movies of all time and write a blog entry about each of them. There are no set qualifications for a movie to be on this list. These are simply my 20 favorite movies of all time. They will not be numbered. Do not assume that I am going in order from 20-1. I will probably do that starting at 10, but honestly 11-20 are not numbered. They kind of exist right outside of the top 10. A few things you will realize as the list goes on are how recent so many of them are, and how Americanized the list is. I make no apologies for this. I know most people who are deep into film as I am often have many movies from the pre-1970s on their lists, but you will only find 2 or 3 of those here. I do not dislike "classic" movies in any way, but they have never stuck with me as much. I respect the craft, but I am rarely left feeling like they are my favorite movies. I cannot really explain it further than that. I am not xenophobic, but when it comes to cinema, I just prefer the American Aesthetic. I have roughly 10 foreign films that I love, but they do not make it into this list. Again, it is just my personal taste. Each post will be labeled as "favorite ever" so you can easily find them as I go on. As always, I love to hear feedback, if not on my choices, on your choices for some of your favorite movies of all time. Okay, onto this week's post. Oh and there will probably be spoilers about each title on the list.

ALADDIN


It would be silly of my to try and concoct a best of all time list without including an animated film. There are so many excellent ones throughout history and they are often left behind for no real good reason. Animated movies are not a genre. They are a different way to tell a story in any genre. When I was thinking of this list, two animated movies made the final 40 and in going back and forth between Aladdin and Wall-E, I ultimately decided on the classic Disney Musical.

Aladdin is nothing but a street rat in the eyes of the world at large, but one day he helps a mysterious woman in the middle of town and she sees more than just a street rat. The problem is that she is actually the princess and a princess must marry a prince. Those are the rules. Jasmine, the princess in question, is making it very difficult for her father, the Sultan, to find a husband for her because she is tough, and independent and wants to marry for love and not because it is what she is supposed to do. This girl does not care about how much money you have. Aladdin is scooped up by the soldiers of the kingdom, but it is all a clever ruse by Jafar, the evil sorcerer who has the Sultan's ear. Jafar sends Aladdin into a magic cave to fetch a magic lamp, but Aladdin is no idiot and he winds up with the lamp and he ends up releasing a genie who grants Aladdin 3 wishes. Aladdin only wants to be a prince so he can marry Princess Jasmine.

Aladdin is a colorful, vibrant musical with perfect voice work from Robin Williams and a wonderful cast of characters. The characters are so great three of them do not even speak, but still have buckets and buckets or personality. You have an angry monkey, a playful magic carpet and a loyal tiger who do not speak, but still manage to be fully realized characters. Add them to the perfect Genie, a sarcastic talking parrot, a truly wonderful villain and two wonderful leads and you have everything you need for a magically perfect musical. Aladdin moves quickly; it has thrilling, daring action sequences and a whooper of a climatic action sequence. However, it is more than just that. It has wonderful, memorable tunes, a sharp funny script and the animation is still wonderful today. I love how fluid everything is once the movie gets going.

"Friend like me" is one of those instantly classic umtempo musical theater dance numbers and the colors and creatures that pop out during that number are so much fun that it is impossible not to get wrapped up in them. There are a few of those fun musical numbers, but the movie also has one of Disney's best love songs "A Whole New World." It is my absolute favorite Disney love song, but more than that, it tells a great story in the movie and allows for the animators to tell a wonderful little story as this romantic song is being sung. The movie has dazzling vocals throughout, but the subtlety of "A Whole New World" will win me over every damn time. You also get the great opening number "One Jump" which offers a fun introduction to the Aladdin and Abu characters and of course, "Prince Ali" the number that I would love to see staged live because it is just full of great character moments for the Genie, but also boasts an impressive number of people/animals. It is hard for me to understand how anyone could not love the music of this film. All of the songs are witty in their lyrics and catchy in their melodies and they all fit perfectly into the movie.

Last but not least there is the comedy. Robin Williams riffing throughout the movie is Robin Williams at his best. He has had richer parts, and done great work in many other movies, but for my money, this is film utilizes Robin Williams in the way Robin Williams was meant to be utilized. His zingers are top notch even 20 years later. His voices are great and he just makes the Genie such an insanely likable character. However, he is not the sole laugh giver. Gilbert Gottfried is perfectly cast as the snarky parrot, Iago. His lines are incredibly memorable. In fact, one of my favorite things about Aladdin is how memorable it all is. I used to have the whole thing completely memorized and even now, that I do not watch it as frequently, I can still remember giant chunks of hilarious, or witty or even frightening dialogue. I am not going to say Jafar is the creepiest of Disney villains, because I can think of 2 or 3 that outdo him in that department, but he is more lecherous. He just oozes nastiness and watching him gain control, is such a dark force and I loved it.

Aladdin is fun for everyone. It is hilarious, has great music and a timeless story about love being just about loving the person and not what the person is supposed to be. It has a strong female princess, a wonderfully charismatic "prince" and a great bunch of supporting roles including Robin Williams whose performance as Genie is one of the all time best voice over performances in cinematic history, in my opinion. Everyone has their rankings of Disney animated movies and I understand everyone is different, but if Aladdin is not in your top 5, we probably have a problem with each other. I am never not in the mood to watch Aladdin,and that is key to being one of my favorite movies of all time.