SunnydaZe10 Reviews

I'm Here (2010)

Sweet and Sad in an indefinable way

[8/10 · 20 March 2010]

Spike Jonze is a director known for over-the-top high concept music videos and yet his films are always so emotional and subtle.

Many scenes in this film moved me yet I can't put my finger on why. It captures the loneliness of a big city, but how just a few friends and a sweetheart can cure that empty feeling. Everything is kept so simple as to be universal.

The look of the robots is very retro and ironic. They look older than the computer I am writing this on by maintaining the boxy gray look of a computer from the late 90s. In many ways this short seems to take place in LA during the 90s. Everything seems dated.

I won't say much about the relationship at the center of the story but I do wonder if it is meant to be dysfunctional or not. Let's just say it reaches a very one-sided place in terms of giving more than you get in a relationship. The ending is moving but also a bit creepy when you consider the reality of what has been sacrificed to save a casual lover.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

The big mistake

[10/10 · 19 July 2005]

Just because Keaton thinks Verbal is Soze', just because whomever killed Keaton had a gold lighter doesn't imply Verbal is Soze'. (it does imply Verbal killed Keaton) I do not believe the Lawyer is Soze', either. I think Soze' is a "corporation" created to scare thugs into submission. Maybe the reason to kill the man on the boat was because he knew this. He may have been a "Verbal" in the "organization" at one point, and decided to rat. He definitely seems to know Verbal before his death, as he screams, "I told them nothing." The most valid reason Verbal is not the "head guy"- Why would he put himself in such jeopardy? It is said of Soze' that he never sticks his neck out. Now, Kujan will make it his life's work proving that Verbal is Soze'. Maybe this is what Soze' wanted. There is no one person who is Soze'. Soze' is a myth (like the devil, who he is often compared with.) The Lawyer is the most likely "Boss" of the "corporation", even though he might just be another "employee". Verbal confesses to killing Keaton while Kujan is yelling at him. Soze' would never confess, only a patsy. One can assume Verbal was paid a nice sum of money and now resides in a Tropical Paradise for his services to "Soze'". Come on, Christopher McQuarrie tell me I'm right. ([e-mail]) That will be the day;) If it is true, excellent satire of the way corporations are designed to be untouchable by creating a hierarchy so complex the true owners are invisible.