Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Well that was awkward.

8/10

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Welcome to Sweden, rape capitol of the world.

In a move that is probably more cliche than simply reviewing the most recent film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's immensely popular novel, I've taken a step back in time to catch up on the original Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I'm not entirely unfamiliar with the movies and their source material, but I have never read the books. What's great about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is that you don't need to be familiar with the source material to enjoy the film. As a stand alone product, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an intense journey into some of the darkest places in the human experience and one that is thrilling and fantastically captivating.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo follows the initially separate narratives of investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Michael Nyqvist), whose life was turned upside-down by his recent conviction for libel, and hacker Lisbeth Salander (Noomi Rapace) who takes a job doing a background investigation of Mikael for a potential employer. Mikael is subsequently hired as a private investigator to solve the cold-case murder of a young girl and Lisbeth secretly aids his search by hacking his computer and leaving clues. As their lives become entangled, they unravel the mysteries of a thirty year old murder and discover the dark secrets that have kept the crime from being solved while dealing with their own personal demons. Mikael struggles with his obsession to solve the murder as Lisbeth battles internal and external forces, particularly her sadistic legal guardian, that assault her from every angle. The resulting labyrinth-like plot is full of surprises and moments of pure violent realism that ground the characters and story in a way that greatly increases the film's realism.

What helps The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo stand above so many murder mystery thrillers just like it is the believability of the characters and the intense moments they experience. Both the actors and the director deserve heaps of credit for this. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo certainly doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the sadistic violence that is perpetrated against it's characters and the actor's go further to sell that violence and, more importantly, the lasting effects of it. Rape and sexual assault are extremely hard to put on camera successfully and immensely disturbing when done correctly. The film walks the razor edge of disturbing and exploitative masterfully primarily because of Rapace's ability to sell the after effects of what happens to her. Each and every sexual assault she is the victim of is shot with just enough imagery to make it clear what is transpiring, but it's really the following scenes of her trying to deal with the trauma that leave the lasting impression. It's these moments that truly help the audience buy into her as a believable character and make her subsequent revenge actions, which are wonderfully sadistic, more believable.

While the blunt force of the violence in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo leaves the greatest lasting impression, so much can be about the general mood of foreboding director Niels Arden Oplev creates for the entire movie. From the general shot selection to the music to the settings chosen, everything about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo screams of dark secrets hidden just underneath the surface. Shots are wider and held for longer than normal and the music seems to blend seamlessly instead of pounding beats of score that some thrillers utilize. Combine this with the vast emptiness of rural Sweden and you have a seemingly empty, but somehow troubling atmosphere. Ultimately this creates a slow, almost plodding, feeling that is magnificently punctuated by intense violence that is expected, but still shocking. Every moment of the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo seems filled to the brim with dread and suspense. This speaks to a unity of vision that for the film that is truly remarkable.

Ironically, if someone were asking me about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I would tell them that it had a feeling similar to a David Fincher thriller. It's slow, almost too slow at points, but all the elements of the film work to build an intensity that really supports the film's narrative. Sprinkle in some great performances and you have a movie that's sure to appeal to a lot of diverse tastes. If you're at all squeamish about violence against women, I'd probably stay away from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but few thrillers are as intense or leave this kind of lasting impression.

8/10

Super 8 (2011)

Alien monsters make bad parenting OK.

8/10

Yojimbo (1961)

Kurosawa must have really liked Clint Eastwood movies.

8/10

The Cove (2009)

I guess I can take Dolphin off my list of animals to eat.

8/10

M (1931)

At least he bought the children something nice before he strangled them.

8/10

The Fighter (2010)

Like an episode of Springer without the fun stuff.

8/10

True Grit (2010)

Now that's a busted faced amputee.

8/10

Black Swan (2010)

Natalie Portman has sex with the chick from That 70's Show.


8/10

The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)

There's no sound.

8/10

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

Spry young man has a serious GILF fetish.

8/10

Brick (2005)

Dorky guy scores with the ladies.

8/10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010)

If my life followed the rules of a video game, I'd be awesome too.

8/10

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

In East Berlin, movie watches you.

8/10

Toy Story 3 (2010)

It's harder to please your toys than it is to please your woman.

8/10

Sunset Blvd. (1950)

Actresses are crazy bitches.

8/10

Waiting for Superman (2010)

Poor kids get screwed and teacher's unions are evil.

The latest in a long line of subtly biased, but ultimately compelling documentaries has arrived with force. Waiting for Superman attempts to tackle the problems with the American education system, but ultimately shows that the problem is far too great to be fixed quickly. What makes the documentary work is that the kids that the movie follows are quite compelling. Those kids will be fine because they have parents that care, but it gives you an idea of how desperate things are for some of the children out there. You have to take the things you see with a grain of salt obviously. There are no outright lies, but not every piece of information is offered freely since some of it works opposite of the filmmakers objective. In the end, the documentary is fairly compelling and it really inspires you to try and make a difference however you can.

8/10

Pinocchio (1940)

Wooden boy gets taken to fantasy land by a fat, old pedophile.

There is something downright impressive about traditional animation. In a time when most animators were struggling to make short, simple animated pieces, Disney was crafting full-length epics with all the bells and whistles. The original Disney films, the ones made in the 30's and 40's were leaps and bounds ahead of anything else out there and Pinocchio embodies this marvelously. Not only is the technology and artistry phenomenal, but the themes and content of the movie shows a mature angle that children's movies, even today, tend to avoid. Together, these elements make Pinocchio a movie that's pretty special.

After the magnificent success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs three years prior, the animators at Disney produced Pinocchio. Pinocchio isn't exactly and original story, that's something that Disney will continue to explore in the future, but it has all sorts of Disney twists. A lonely woodcutter creates a son out of wood and wishes for him to live. The wooden boy springs to life only to fail at pretty much everything he tries. Disney's attempt to convince the world that women are truly useless didn't quite match the financial success of Snow White, but it has become a much beloved classic in the modern era. The film won a pair of Academy Awards, both of music, and is a certifiable animated, classic nowadays. At the very least, Pinocchio is a daring, unconventional step for Disney and a movie that still stands out today.

When watching Pinocchio, it's important to remember how impressive the film-making was at the time. Everything Disney produced in the early years deserves to be viewed as technological marvels and Pinocchio is no exception. The animation here is superb and it always will be. What makes Pinocchio stand out even more are the thematic elements. This is a children's film for an entirely different generation. The tone of the movie is especially dark and the language is, at times, questionable. These things make the movie truly enjoyable as an adult. Sometimes Children's movies are afraid of the down and dirty aspects of life that work for all ages, but Pinocchio address these things wonderfully. Pinocchio teaches a wonderful lesson for kids, honesty is good, while appealing to adults with some really disturbing subtext.

When you watch a movie that almost 70 years old, you have to ask yourself why. Some movies the answer to the question is easy. Pinocchio is one of those films. The movie continues to speak to modern sensibilities as well as serving as an interesting time capsule. Not only is the film a masterful technological achievement, but it's managed to stay relevant and interesting for longer than my grandparents have been alive. That alone makes it worth seeing.

8/10

Apocalypse Now (1979)

It's Huck Finn with killing and twice as many black people.

Some movies are such a part of the modern cultural identity that they seem cliche the first time you watch them. I was a little bit ashamed to admit that I had never seen Apocalypse Now before recently, but, after watching it, I was struck with a strange sense of familiarity with the film. Apocalypse Now has become something of a cultural icon. It inspired countless initiations and has in immeasurable effect on film making and culture. Apocalypse Now defines the idea of a must-see movie and, even with it's flaws, it is one of the more effective and interesting war movies out there.

Apocalypse Now is partially based of the book Dispatches, but owes more of it's creative influence to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. The story follows a slightly crazy special ops soldier, Martin Sheen, as he takes a tripe down a river into Cambodia in an attempt to kill a slightly crazier rogue commander, Marlon Brando. Their surreal trip includes tiger fights, death by spear and Playboy playmates. Aside from the stars previously mentioned, the film also includes Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, Laurence Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. Directed by the legendary Francis Ford Coppola, Apocalypse Now was, and is, a critics darling, it won a pair of Academy Awards, it was nominated for eight, and it commonly tops lists of greatest war films ever made. A movie as esteemed as Apocalypse Now creates some pretty overwhelming expectations, but this time around the film lives up to the vast majority of them.

The biggest thing that Apocalypse Now has going for it is the complexity. There is a lot of symbolism and complexity that really makes the movie standout in the long run. Each layer of the film offers something more to the audience, but it also works because the film plays fine with just a simple viewing. I greatly appreciate films that offer a satisfactory viewing experience on a casual watch, but still retain the complexity for future viewings. The performances in Apocalypse Now are all solid, in particular Robert Duvall's supporting performance is magnificent, and pretty much everything else is solid. There is some clear evidence of the films production trouble, in particular Marlon Brando being insanely overweight, but most of it gives the movie a strange feeling. It's hard to describe, but the movie has an unique feel to it that only the disastrous circumstances surrounding the movie could create. The one glaring problem with the film is the really strange soundtrack. The synthesizer music dates the movie in a way that prevents it from being the timeless classic that it could be.

Apocalypse Now is, without a doubt, one of the most influential movies made in the last 50 years. It may not be my favorite movie about the Vietnam War, but it is certainly an interesting glimpse into the time. I'm happy to have checked the movie off my list of films to see, especially since I will be traveling to Vietnam in about a month, and I would recommend the film highly. Apocalypse Now deserves the title of must-see film and I'm looking forward to viewing the Redux version of the movie in the future.

8/10

Inception (2010)

It's like that movie you wrote in high school only, you know, good.

Let's face it. On college campuses around the world, hundreds on drunk, aspiring writers have pitched their crazy idea about the heist movie set in people's dreams. The other simple truth is that movie idea was a bad one. Christopher Nolan has, somehow, made that really bad movie that your friend came up with into a insanely exciting and compelling thriller. Inception is exactly what it advertises; an impeccably made psychological thriller.

At some point in the not so distant future, technology is created so that people can craft and enter a state of lucid dreaming. Like all awesome technology, it's only real use is for crime. A team of crooks breaks into your dreams and steals your secrets. When a job goes wrong, their only hope is to do something that most have deemed impossible. They have to give a person idea by planting it deep in their subconscious. In typical Christopher Nolan fashion, Inception fields a ridiculously all-star cast, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Ellen Page, Cillian Murphy and a bunch of others, and it enough mind-bending ideas and visuals to make your mind hurt. Nolan is slowly, but surely, become one of the defining directors, stylistically, of the 21st century and Inception may very well be the most talked about, and most successful, movie of 2010.

It's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes Inception work so well. It could be the cast, which is so full of Academy Award winners and nominees that it makes me dizzy, the tight, intelligent script or the absolutely stunning visuals, but in the long run it doesn't really matter. Inception is a landmark film for intelligent science fiction and mature film-making. Nolan's script doesn't hold you hand, but it doesn't leave you adrift in a sea of symbolism and meaningless techno-babble either. It provides just enough information about what is happening for everything to make sense and it manages to blend the science fiction with personal drama in a way that keeps things grounded in reality. It's important that the cast gets credit too since their excellent performances keep everyone's feet on the ground even when what we are watching is insane. What is most pleasing about Inception is that it asks you, as an audience member, to think about what you are seeing, but it doesn't feel like too much work. Often times, a movie like Inception will demand multiple viewings for even a cursory understanding of it, but Inception plays just fine on one viewing. What's impressive is how much I desire a second viewing so that I can dive deeper into the finely crafted world of the film. I won't say much about the ending in this review, but I will say something. I consider myself kind of an ending whore, I spend a lot of time thinking about what makes a good ending and what makes a bad one, and Inception's ending hits it out of the park. It's not as much of a cliffhanger as people think, but it is still masterful.

It's not all sunshine and clear skies for Inception though. There are a few issues with the movie that have plagued me since my viewing. The first is the concept of "Limbo". All analysis of the movie seems to be stuck on the simple fact that "Limbo" was poorly explained. I get the raw idea of what it is, but the rules of it, yes I know it's a dream but there must be some sort of binding laws about it, are totally unclear. This is one instance where Nolan could have spent a little more time explaining how it works and why certain things happen the way they do. The other minor issue I have is with the beginning of the movie. I don't quite understand why the beginning sequence was Cobb finding Saito in Limbo. It didn't make sense and when the movie was over, I couldn't quite piece together the significance of that choice. Maybe I missed the point, but it ended up confusing me more than anything else.

When all is said and done, Inception is a breath of fresh air for Hollywood. Part of me drew comparisons to the first time I sat down and saw The Matrix in theaters. Christopher Nolan status as a Hollywood icon might now be set in stone and I can only hope he keeps making knock-out psychological thrillers. I'm not sure if Inception is as good as Memento, but it's certainly exciting and worth seeing.

8/10