Dead Man [1995]

An accountant from Cleveland, Walter Blake, comes out west on promise of a job working for an eccentric tycoon – only to be turned away – and become an outlaw.

This was a great star studded dark comedy – which also made for a great western. Neil Young’s soundtrack was exceptional and made Blake’s journey more unnerving. Jim Jarmusch’s direction as interesting – he allowed for very static shots where nothing was happening while the distorted guitar would blare – and somehow it worked at being interesting as opposed to being annoying. Johnny Depp was off kilter as Blake – he had some great acting chops even back then - I wish he’d have gotten the credit and continued down that quirky road – instead of being Burton’s go-to puppet. I loved how this film could be left up to interpretation as to what was actually happening. I loved how it seemed like this film was kind of a commando production done in the back woods. It was most certainly dialogue driven in a better way than Tarantino’s films. I really loved the metaphysical change in Blake from an inept accountant to outlaw.

Overall – it was a great film – my presumption disparity may be off on this one – so the shock of being pleasantly surprised may tamper my long run view of the film – but I really liked it.

Quick Picks - Sept 4, 2011 Edition

Peep World [2010]

A bunch of adult kids have taken divergent – yet miserable - paths in life after they left the nest – and it’s all their asshole daddy’s fault.

I didn’t like this movie. All the characters were fairly weak caricatures and that made them boring. One son is aloof (Rainn Wilson) – the other is struggling architect (Michael C. Hall) – the daughter is a bitch (Sarah Silverman) – and the youngest son is profiting off their misery in his thinly veiled novel about the family (Ben Schwartz) – and they all hate their father with good reason. I felt the writer of this movie has some daddy issues – and made a movie – not that there’s not potential in it but you got to do better than this. I wanted to shake each and every one of them and tell them to grow up and make your own decisions – live your own life – grow up!

I hated the penis joke – so fucking dumb – I almost turned off the movie at that point – make a dark comedy and have fun – but a penis joke? Why not make some poop and fart jokes? I didn’t hate the movie – I really hated parts of it – I kind of liked other parts – but it’s not funny in a way that I would recommend.

Rango [2011]

A pet lizard finds himself lost in the desert and wanders into a town of desert creatures – where he saves the day and takes over as the town sheriff.

I really enjoyed this fun little spaghetti western homage. I loved the two “cameos” in both a nod to Depp and a nod to the genre – and because I was pleasantly surprised the cameos will go nameless in my blurb. The animation was beautifully done – though it’s animated it’s not a film made for kids – kid friendly most certainly – but too much over the head dialogue. I liked how the town animals were modeled after Leone’s town folk characters – even the snake was a nice nod to Lee Van Cleef. Overall, there’s not much to say – it appealed to some of my likes – but it was a good enough movie – never really grabbing me and pulling me in – but also not disappointing me.

Weekend Viewing - Feb 12-14 (part 1)

Public Enemies [2009, directed by Michael Mann]

The story of the FBI’s hunt for John Dillinger.

My problem with this film is the stop-n-go narrative – the characters were mostly unsympathetic and unlikable – and no discernable theme or insight that makes you stand up and enjoy the film on anything other than a base level.

What I did like was Dillinger’s girl, Billie – she was really the only likable character and the one you wanted to see her storyline come to a satisfactory conclusion. The action and gun fights were very good – and the locations were especially nice (one of them was a block away from my grandfather’s house). Yet, a sloppy story, sloppy direction and virtually no characters to care about make me give this a generous 3 out of 5.

Man Bites Dog [1992, directed by Remy Belavaux, Andre Bonzel & Benoit Poelvoorde]

A documentary film crew follows a charismatic yet unrepentant serial killer on his murder sprees.

This film firmly evokes disgust while shining a light on how the media often will promote and somewhat glorify the villains in society. It is a very effective and thought provoking critic on how we as a society lose focus on what’s really important when it comes to violent crimes. Often the main focus is on who’s doing these crimes – the Jeffery Dahmer’s, Ted Bundy’s, Ed Gein’s all get movies/documentaries made about their exploits and their victims are footnotes just like this film. We see the killer’s crimes in this film so much – and know so much about him – yet we know nothing about the victims. I give this film a solid 4 out of 5.