Black Swan

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

It's still great. Although funny to think of all the people that go to the megaplex and think it's just an oscar drama and probably haven't seen a film like this in their life and just don't know what to make of it. Oh well at least Black Swan is getting their money, even if they hate it.

Watching 2nd time, what did I see? A lot. Well first thing I thought of was the significance of the first 5 minutes, the dream she has of being the princess turned into the swan. She is turned into the white swan right from the first frame which makes makes it hard to trust anything that happens in the rest of the film. Although I find keeping an eye on the flashes of Nina's face on other characters is a good indicator.

There is a lot of subtle character moments at the start that foreshadow later events. Easy to see when you know to look for them. A lot of things I picked up with the mother character too.

The second thing I took notice of was the grain. It looks like they used the Canon cameras to shoot all the stuff in the real subway train carts with available light and the rest of it was 16mm.

The sound design still stands out. So much wing fluttering. But this time I hear the music more. You can hear swan lake themes throughout and I read that Clint Mansell used those themes played backwards and upside down in the rest of the film too. I tried working it out and humming it in my head at a few spots. Yeah it's there. I don't know who is going to be able to work that out though haha.

I said before that the style was more grungy realism but I noticed Matthew Libatique's lighting more this time. A lot of the time It looks like very natural available light and also at the end he has the advantage/disadvantage of using theatrical stage lighting. I say disadvantage because the camera is up on stage circling the dancers for the majority of the scenes so hiding the shadows would have been an absolute nightmare. There's a scene where the camera follows her from the front of the stage to the back and she is in full spot light but there is no shadow of the camera... which must clearly be filming from directly in front of her. I don't know what they were doing but it is neat. Even with all those huge mirrors you don't ever see filming equipment. A lot can be hiding with good camera angles but there must have been some digital paint work done, there MUST have been.

And backstage at the end where the guy playing the evil sorcerer walks past and just says "hey" is the most hilarious moment in the film.

I think I'll be seeing this for a 3rd time tomorrow, so let's see how I go after that.

The Birthday

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

This film is one that I will never expect anyone but me to like, but I do like it, very much. It's like putting Jerry Lewis as the protagonist of an H.P. Lovecraft story. And it IS basically a Lovecraft film, which is probably why they got Guillermo del Toro as an exec producer.

Corey Feldman is hilarious in this. He is really out there with this character. It's probably too much for some people but it cracks me up every time. This is really his film.

Things start off rather usual, there will be a birthday party and his new girlfriend is being a bitch and he's going to meet their parents. It's typical drama romantic comedy stuff. Well not entirely because Feldman is just bizarre. And then other strange things begin happening. first in the background and then more overt. Until it end up with dead bodies and a mysterious cult and the birth of an evil god.

This film never got a release anywhere but they sell dvds in Spain and Germany so if you want to see it, let me know. I love this stuff, but not for everyone. Can't wait to see his next film Agnosia.

Miracle Mile

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Tyler, Jordan

Pre post apocalyptic madness. This is an odd little film but I do like it, especially because for more than half the running time you don't know if the threat of nuclear war is real or not so there may just be mass hysteria spreading. The other reason I like it is it is sooooo 80's-tastic.

This feel had such a weird vibe about it. It starts out as a bad romance with a cheesy voice over and everything and then the way it ends is, well, different fro where it starts. End of the world type stuff. And all through the tone is....umm.. very hard to describe.

If you can actually find a copy of this film, it's worth a quick watch. Especially if like me you try and watch every apocalyptic film you can get your hands on.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

This movie is kinda boring. the whole first half is very slow. Adam West is in the film briefly at the start, being deadly serious but it is always hard to take him as such. That problem doesn't last long though as we're stranded with a boring guy and a monkey in what looks an awful lot like the californian desert with some flames added.

But about halfway through the film some alien craft show up blowing the shit out of everything. I recognise that design anywhere, they are quite obviously the same parts from my favourite sci-fi of all time, War of the Worlds. They even make the same noises. They do move differently and are missing the long head, but apart from that they are pretty much identical. I guess it was no surprise to find out that Byron Haskin directed both films.

So the aliens have humanoid slaves and we get Friday, who picks up english remarkably well. And then they hang out a bit and then they get rescued. That's pretty much it. Eh.

So apart from the fun War of the Words tie in, not much else here.

The Green Hornet

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan

I really enjoyed this, I barley have any knowledge on the comic and show it's based on but the film was a lot of fun. Seth Rogan as a hero, it's pretty much what you would think it is. Everyone, even the villains sometimes are just hilariously incompetent.

I think the villain as portrayed by Christoph Waltz, might have been my favourite character. He's an insecure guy and it's a joy to watch him go through his mid-life bad guy crisis when the Hornet comes along and upstages him. He is the funniest serious villain I can think of.

It wouldn't be a Michel Gondry film if there wasn't some mind blowing visual concepts on display and this film has its fair share. Some you can see in the trailer, like the multiplying layers of cars that gives Kato extra momentum in his run up, or the amazing way the camera moves in a constant motion while Kato moves faster and the bad guys go in slow motion. It's kind of a nightmare to think of how they must have done that, but it is an awesome effect that really shows Kato's super speed. But the coolest thing was a shot that, without cutting divides into split screen and then each half moves in different directions and then divides again, until there are about 12 screens happening at once. It's really hard to describe the effect and also impossible to think of how they managed to physically executed the shot which appears to be in real time and without the camera ever seeming to cut. Some fx trickery in there somewhere, I'll have to see this again.

There's also a expositional/dream sequence that is just bizarre and hilarious.

The action is fine. Mainly car chase stuff and the odd Kato fight. What really sells the movie though is Seth Rogan and Jay Chou as his straight man. The two are great together and I quite like Seth Rogan's sense of humor so I had a great time. Cameron Diaz is in the film somewhere I think but who really noticed? Not me.

Now I looked everywhere for a 2d screening, but there were none on at any appropriate time and they were all at cinemas miles away. I had hoped to see the 2d version first and then watch the 3d to see how they handled the post conversion. I've said before I'm not a fan of post conversion but I was intrigued to see how someone like Gondry would handle it. It's certainly far better the others I've seen and Gondry uses the 3d in some cool ways, especially with match transitions where the 3d depth also matches and the aforementioned multiplying layers of depth. But the conversion still has problems, especially with plants, if you look at the trees they usually appear to be flat or have the background pushed out in strange ways between branches. It's filled with odd things like that.

I don't know if that's something anyone else but me notices. All in all it wasn't too distracting, the film itself was good enough for it not to bother me that much. However you see it you should have a good time.

Starship Troopers

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Jordan

A great Paul Verhoeven film. I feel it is one of the most underrated and misunderstood films ever. Most people I know think it is a horrible film but I think it's actually a scathingly funny satire of 40's war propaganda and sci-fi B-movies. It seems to be making fun of its source material but can still be read as a sincere adaptation. In fact some people think it's pro-facist when really it's the opposite. Apparently the satire is too subtle for some people. Idiots.

Paul Verhoeven does not make pure exploitation, he somehow manages to have just enough legitimacy in his films to get away with some pretty low brow stuff. He loves the violence and sex and his films, including this one, are jam packed with them. But he always has some amount depth to his characters and themes, sometimes more slight than others but enough to make his films stand out from the run of the mill b-grade genre films. His technique is always extremely competent. I really love his films and nobody does gunshot squibs quite like him. More is more.

This film is also significant because of the huge leaps forward in fx that were made. A lot of this has to do with the amazing design and animation work done by the great Phil Tippett and his team who were just making the switch to digital fx at the time.

This s just a damn entertaining film, if you let it be. The action is great, the effects hold up rather well, and although the characters are basically stock, it's the plot and the tone that offer a great political commentary on propaganda and militarism.

Black Swan

IMDB
First time viewed:Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Naomi, Tyler

Finally saw Black Swan. And I loved it of course. It's a deceptively simple tale about the hell artists put themselves through for their art.

Natalie Portman was great. The audience is with the main character Nina all the way. We are inside her head from the start and unfortunately she is not the most reliable narrator as her judgement of reality slowly distorts throughout the film.

Aronofsky has made films like Pi and The Wrestler which are down and dirty, almost documentary styled and also Requiem for a Dream and The fountain which are more classically composed and very deliberate in their technique. This film feels like a mixture between the two but ultimately has more in common with documentary side of filmmaking but with more fantastic elements at play. It was interesting to see he just used some 16mm cameras and the canon 5D and 7D. It does have that grainy look and a beautiful muted palette where the only warm colour is the red of blood.

Like The Wrestler a lot of the film feels like we are following the lead character walking around and watching extreme close ups of their face as events unfold and how the react. I loved that we never had to see the usual wide shots of the ballet performances at the end, instead the camera always stays close to Nina, both onstage and off and we only ever get to see what she sees.

And what she sees is not necessarily what is real. It was very Cronenberg-esque, with all the physical manifestation body metamorphosis stuff. Her inner emotions begin to break out and transform the world around her as she sinks deeper into character. It certainly keeps the audience on their toes. The build up to the finale was quite tense.

For me, the unsung hero of this film is the sound design. There is a lot of overt stuff going on, but there are some more subtle things hidden underneath too that just work with the music to push the tone of the scenes and add these little tense moments. It's a very leading design but I loved it and can't wait to go back to hear what I may have missed out on before.

I have more to say but I'll leave it at this for now because no doubt I'll be seeing this again to further clarify some of my ideas about it. Definitely a fine film though, so go see it now.

Piranha

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Bree, Leith, Dad

So black swan didn;t happen today either. Sad Face. But I watched this instead? again? WHAT?

BAAAhahahahah yes I have watched this again. But this time with an audience to share the fun. And that makes all the difference.
Here's my last entry about it and yes I still love it.

Guilty pleasure is such a silly term. If it makes you happy then just say you like it! Then try your best to put up with the shame and ridicule of others who just don't understand what greatness is. Hmm, Or just say it's a guilty pleasure.

The original film is sitting on the table tempting me... But I have to work tomorrow, sleep times.

The Red Shoes

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I'm heading back to Perth tomorrow so I can FINALLY see Black Swan and i'm soooo super excited about that, so I decided to watch the Red Shoes tonight to get me pumped.

It has been a long time since I last saw this, I'd been holding out, hoping the digitally remastered version would be available soon, the one that Martin Scorcese supervised just before Shutter Island came out. Now I'm even more excited to see it and God willing, own it in HD. It is stunning. Far better than I remember. Or maybe I can just appreciate it more now. Whatever the case I was left gobsmacked (and I'll admit, a little teary) by the end.

Just on the technical side of things, the film feels so modern. Firstly, like Amadeus, there is a big focus on music and the way it is used in the film is great. It flows from diegetic to non-diegetic, from ballet score to opera to film score all with the greatest of ease.

The editing also stands out. One of my favourite bits in the black swan trailer were the use of whip pans intercut with the lead pirouetting with a spotting head. It created a great sense of movement and pacing with the cuts and is also a great audience positioning device. Imagine my surprise when the exact same technique was used in the film made some 50 years earlier. They also used whip pans as a scene transition device and it really keeps the scenes flowing. This is an obvious indication of a well planed out film, something that I appreciate with people like Edgar Wright.

The colour is fascinating to me. I really want to see the digitally remastered version because I can't tell if the copy I watched had colour issues or if that's as good as it got in 1947. I have a curious feeling it might be the latter, but I can't wait to find out.

Now it seems to be a standard feature for these older films to stop the plot dead for a fantasy dance number. I always hated that tradition from old musicals (especially you Singin' In The Rain. God you are the WORST culprit of this) and the same thing happens here. Smack bam dead centre of the film, 15 minutes of dancing. But there are key differences between the big dance numbers I remember and this one. Firstly, it doesn't stop the plot, it is PART of the plot, infect an integral portion of the film. Secondly it's not just a wide shot of people dancing on a stage or a big abstract studio set, It shifts in and out of both, of reality and dream and the camera and editing is part of the dance. There are overlays and match dissolves and the camera is not static, it moves. Things are always kept visually interesting through an amazing variety of different practical and post effects. And thirdly the dancing is just fucking good. The emotions come though loud and clear. It gets the art of dancing across to a layman audience loud and clear in the same way Amadeus managed to explain and impassion a layman audience about classical music.

And of course, Like I have a feeling Black Swan is, the what happens in the Ballet is the same story as the film of the telling of that story. A bit Po-mo-mo-mo, telling the story of the ballet by telling the story of the ballet. But it make the Ballet and the story in it so significant to the film as a whole that I don't believe you could have the film without it, unlike all those other old movies where if you cut the 20 minute dance number no-one would notice and you'd have a much better film. Rant over.

Moira Shearer has one of those old-fashioned proper trans-atlantic sounding american accents. It's had to believe that people ever spoke like that in real life. Does anyone still speak like that? But my favourite character is the jealous head of the company. I suppose he should be the villain of the piece but he's just so damn compelling and fascinating and his motivations are so clear from the get go that I was rooting for him all the way.

Now, spoiler alert, the girl dies at the end, obviously. And the scenes immediately following this did make me tear up a bit, I was unusually invested in this film tonight for some reason. But what ruined it was the very last part, after the ballet goes on without the lead just an empty spot light and the red shoes. That is such a PERFECT ending for the film, but then they cut outside to the girl dying in her lovers arms. I guess they need more closure and wanted to have the red shoes being taken off her feet as she dies, mirroring the end of the ballet. But I'm sorry, someone jumping from a balcony that high and landing in front of a train moving that fast… There's not going to be much of them left, let alone that gorgeous looking with bright technicolour red hair and just a few spots of blood down her legs. I guess they couldn't show the reality of that situation in '47, but I don't like that they cut back to it at all. The edits of her jumping and then cutting back to the theatre works so well with everything implied.

Ahh well, that's nit-picky stuff. On the whole this movie fucking blew my mind. Anyone that has any love of cinema must watch immediately if they have never seen this masterpiece! Now back to Perth to see Black Swan!

Sleep Dealer

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

I got this ages ago but never got around to watching it. One of the indi films I read a review of a few years back that sounded like it would appeal to me. I was right to.

It's hard to pull off sci-fi with no budget. It usually requires some creative thinking. That is certainly the case with this little mexican film about workers that can get jobs in the U.S. without illegally crossing the border by plugging into computers and working drones by remote.

This is essentially a drama of atonement and a coming of age story. The sci-fi elements are low tech and believable. Some of the cg effects aren't great but most of the practical stuff works really well.

There are some cool ideas about recording and selling your memories, almost like the next evolution of Facebook, and being about to work anywhere in the world via drones and how this leads to strange connections with people on the other side of the country.

It's a very simple story where the focus is firmly on character and drama not the sci-fi, which is why it works. The parts that don't flow as smoothly are the very few scenes where the focus shifts to the tech and special effects that were just a little bit more ambitions than they probably had time or budget for.

Fun fact: This is the first film i've watched entirely in a bath.

Zombieland

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Myself

Fun times. The zombie thing has been done to death (excuse the pun) but films like this make a good argument for them. There's not much substance to the plot but it's the characters that really shine here. Them, the actors playing them and the hilarious script.

It was originally a TV pilot and it feels like the set up for an ongoing story. There is an interesting visual style director Ruben Fleischer brings with him from his music video background. I particularly like the integration of the survival rules captions and some very pretty slow motion.

The actors are all fantastic bringing life to the better than expected script. Not every horror comedy is Shaun of the Dead but this one allows for horror moments with suspense or some cheap jumps scares, character comedy moments and some genuine drama as well. It's a strange mix but It works for me. I hope they make more.