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Reviews
The Machinist (2004)
A Tortured Soul's Denouement
Fight Club meets Twelve Monkeys, but in a role only Bale could do. A tour De force plot drives a morality tale about the expiation of conscience. The musical score is wonderful, as are the locations. I hope Bale--like Edward Norton--does not do too many 'delusional' roles. Playing a blue-collar American, Christian Bale shows he can become anyone. He starves himself in this role in a bit of 'method acting' that would challenge Kafka's "Hunger Artist." Superbly brooding and desperate, the plot continues to surprise through the last scene.
As for the rest of the cast, Jennifer Jason-Leigh should hang up the whore with a heart of gold character. Or wait, was this Elizabeth Shue in "Leaving Las Vegas"? Sharian as Ivan has a great bit part, looking like the fattened Brando as Kurtz.
There are Trevor Reznik's in the world, deeply in need of solace.
At Close Range (1986)
A Moody, Rural Classic
Few movies do rural places well w/o lapsing into hick stereotypes. Sean Penn and Walken both act their tails off, this being before each became a caricature. For me, this movie was great for Penn on the way from "Racing With the Moon" to "Colors" a few years later. He catches an adolescent macho vibe that is very charismatic. (I think Mary Stuart Masterson is cute and non-threatening as the love interest. Somebody like Diane Lane would really have bumped it a notch, though!) Dark? Oh, yeah...it's not Faulkner, but Kazan puts great lines in mouths of champion weirdos like Tracey Walther. If you grew up in PA and don't feel this movie, "Flashdance" and "All The Right Moves" back to back won't get you there.
Murder by Numbers (2002)
Cross 'Rope' and 'Compulsion' and Add Sandra Bullock
This flick is pretty cool. With a slightly smarter script this would a tour de force. The kids could have written a paper about Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, discussed Leopold and Loeb over dinner, and watched 'Rope' and skipped the whole thing. But this is stylish, good fun.
Visually it is pleasing, especially in architectural detail and vistas of California coast. Two high school kids have Stickley lamps and sports cars, yet must kill to prove a philosophical point? Been done. I believe it here, especially since the homosexual pretext is right up front (which is new). A suicide pact doesn't have to get pinned to pop psychology; instead, it's another great plot twist.
Sandra Bullock and the cast aren't especially distinguished, perhaps since plot actually drives this movie, not star value. I'll own a copy some day.