Change Your Image
johnnybigpants
Reviews
Sin City (2005)
Welcome back Rodriuez & Rourke!
The two things that shine out from this visually dazzling comic-strip adaptation is Robert Rodriguez absolute requirement to collaborate with someone else and the return of Mickey Rourke.
Much will be written here about the brilliance of the movie with its shimmering high-contrast black & white cinematography spattered with moments of vivid color, but my focus is on Rodriguez and Rourke. Ever since he blazed onto the screen with El Mariachi, Rodriguez has regularly disappointed with his one-man-show flicks. He writes, directs, shoots, edits, composes, makes the coffee etc., and most of his movies. The subsequent disaster was encompassed in Once Upon A Time In Mexico - a sacrilegious title in itself for the dross that it was.
It seems evident now that for all of Rodriguez individual brilliance, he needs a collaborator to fuse the magic together. And it is no coincidence that Sin City is a masterpiece of modern cinematic flair and narrative when Rodriguez allows himself to work closely with Creator Frank Miller and no doubt have best pal Quentin on hand to bounce and share ideas with. This is easily his best film so far, and his best since his other Quentin collaboration From Duisk Till Dawn.
With Mickey Rourke, we have the return of a hero. He was the man to replace Brando as the King. The fact that he self-destructed is an indictment on fame and Hollywood. But there is no question that Rourke was and remains one of the truly great talents. Had he died after his 1st 3 roles a la James Dean, he would be bigger and more revered than Dean himself.
Here, albeit with outlandish prosthetics to conceal his own, Rourke roars into the character Marv who vows to avenge the death of a hooker called Goldie, his scratchy whiskey-soaked voice narrating the scenes with a growling drawl that Willis, Del Toro, and especially the weak Clive Owen can only dream of.
The film is superb. And Rourke is back.
Married/Unmarried (2001)
Closer to the truth than Closer
I had not heard of this film until recently airing my grievances about the inept and much-lauded 'Closer', but was recommended to it by a girlfriend who strangely described it as 'offensively unforgettable'. Structured similarly to its feeble counterpart, we follow two partner-swapping couples who confess their (in)fidelity explicitly and coldly. A recently married wife is gripped by jealousy when himbo husband sees an ex-girlfriend on TV, while couple number two exhume a submissive side of role-playing with only one willing participant.
The writer/director - known only as Noli - refuses to compromise on the emotional darkness, overloading each set-piece with ear-bleeding conversation that is shockingly provocative if at times a little pretentious. It is very easy to switch off and become immune to the onslaught, but you are drawn 'closer' to each character's world of deeply-rooted sexual anxiety and insecurity. And most compelling is the recognition of some these grotesque inner feelings.
Visually, it is a knockout. Narratively, it drags, but constantly surprises and intrigues. Artistically, it puts 'Closer' to shame with its darker version of a darker truth.
Dead Babies (2000)
A miss for Amis
This inept adaptation of arguably one of Martin Amis's weaker novels fails to even draw comparisons with other druggy oeuvres such as Requiem For A Dream or anything penned by Irvine Walsh as it struggles to decide whether it is a slap-stick cartoon or a hyper-realistic hallucination.
Boringly directed by William Marsh in over-saturated hues, a group of public school drop-outs converge in a mansion awaiting the appearance of three American friends for a weekend of decadent drug-taking. And that's it. Except for the ludicrous sub-plot soon-to-be-the-main-plot nonsense about an extremist cult group who express themselves with the violent killings of the world's elite figures, be it political or pampered. Within the first reel you know exactly where this is going.
What is a talented actor like Paul Bettany doing in this tiresome, badly written bore? Made prior to his rise to fame and Jennifer Connelly one can be assured that had he been offered this garbage now he'd have immediately changed agents! Avoid.
Nabbeun namja (2001)
Slow slow slow
This disappointing film by promising Korean director Ki-Duk Kim fails to grip because of its over reliance on voyeurism thru the eyes of its protagonist as a means to convey his overwhelming unrequited love for the misused and abused heroine.
Han-ki is a moody, mostly mute, violent pimp. Head down, permanent scowl, eyes peering from heavy set brow, cigarette always on his lips. On seeing a beautiful young girl, Sun-hwa, sitting alone on a park bench, he is overcome and despite the appearance of her boyfriend, he grabs her to extol a violent and overlong kiss. Subsequently beaten to the ground by a combination of boyfriend and passing army, he leaves to hatch a plan to have her by his side.
This is where the film fails. From the implausibility of the trap, to the relentless scenes of staring at his so-called dream-girl thru a two-way mirror while she has to pay off a debt thru humiliating prostitution. It all becomes tiresome to the extent that by the time the two confront each other we do not care if they will get together or destroy each other.
Available at the moment only as an imported DVD, this is a disappointing follow-up to Kim's previous feature The Isle.
Human Nature (2001)
Being John Monkeyvich
Despite being released prior, I, like many, only came round to this film after being acquainted to the work of Charlie Kaufmann and Michel Gondry through movies like 'Eternal Sunshine' and 'Adaptation' and while not to the same standards as those films, Human Nature can stand proudly alongside the wonderful skewed vision that Kaufmann scribes.
Patricia Arquette plays a hirsute freak-show act who abandons city life for the feral way in the woods as a best selling writer of the nature experience, but when that all becomes too much for her and her hormones introduce to her lust, she opts for human life - painful electrolysis included - to meet and live with stuffy etiquette scientist Tim Robbins whose own pet project is the taming and re-humanizing of Rhys Ifans, raised in the woods with chimps.
The subsequent tale follows Ifans long and torturous education to being a gentleman, with some comedic humping when he is remotely confronted by the sight of any female. This plays smoothly with Arquette's own discovery that human life isn't so pure and her feral life previous, while persecuted, was truer than what she was now experiencing.
Crisp production design - reminiscent of Being John Malkovich, controls the surreal humor into a dream-like expression of the modern world. A fan of any of the other films mentioned in this piece will be a fan of this too. And if the sight of a naked and heavily hirsute Patricia Arquette rocks your boat, then this should be added to your strange collection!
XX/XY (2002)
Great Start, Dull end
Austin Chick's movie starts with a great shimmer, gruff Ruffalo follows an enigmatic prey in the shape of Maya Strange home, hand-held camera as much as a voyeur as he is. What emerges is a College frat party where Ruffalo rolls around with Maya and her best girl pal Kathleen Robertson who have a greater understanding of sexual sharing than Ruffalo.
Despite Ruffalo's obvious attraction to Maya, though more than willing to fool around with both, when the film fast forward's to a decade later, Ruffalo is shacked up with clean and sensible Claire in a subtle performance by Petra Wright From now, the film falls as flat as Ruffalo's new nerdy haircut. What exactly happened in those 10 years? It's in there somewhere but suddenly we're watching a completely different, slower, duller film that we no longer care about. The inevitable reappearance of one of the college girls is no surprise (nor a surprise as to who it is) and the artificial denouement leads to further disappointment. A huge anti-climax.
We Don't Live Here Anymore (2004)
Far Superior Drama To 'Closer'
Having not always appreciated Laura Dern's 'choices' as an actress, I can wholeheartedly recommend not only this film but her incisive performance as Mark Ruffalo's razor-edged wife. Slightly physically mismatched (some scenes you could accept Dern to be Ruffalo's mother!) this does not detract from the taut emotional decay these two convey unsympathetically in the films' finest duologue's.
Competently balanced by Peter Strauss smooth transfer from small to big screen and the increasingly impressive Naomi Watts, though Strauss's writing-block sub-plot - an anomaly if ever there was one - is the tale's major weak point.
'We Don't Live Here' is a far superior, intelligent and credible examination of adultery and animosity than CLOSER, with better performances, dialogue and direction.
Closer (2004)
Couldn't be more further away!!!
So here we have a story of four cats completely unsuited for each other from opposing walks of life who are attracted and distracted to each other yet somehow affect their emotional states to such a degree that whether they're together or apart they permanently scarred. Two words: AS IF. Howe can we buy that Princess Julia would fall for Lout Clive and Stripper Natalie would be mesmerized by Wimpoid Jude.
Never saw the play (thank you Lord) but can only assume it was infinitely better than this pretentious preposterous garbage. Jude Law's performance is so wooden the cast probably got splinters every time he touched them. Julia Robert's cynical marketing casting is an affront to every credible actress who would've have borough credence and depth and genuine emotion to a role that she barely make tolerable. Clive Owen gruffs up his demeanor to deliver a few choice lines with admirable venom - though a yob doctor is hardly believable - and Natalie Portman strives hard to inject emotional realism to her damaged character.
Everything this film tries to be, it isn't. It's not gritty, it's not shocking, it's not real, it's not dark and it's not remotely original.