Lots of movies to get to this week, so let's get the show on the road! :O
Zodiac (2007): This is a hell of a lot longer than I expected, but looking back on it, there really is no other way to tell the story of such a sprawling string murders as the Zodiac Killings. I like how most of the focus is put on the relentless hunt for information rather than the murders; there's a fair bit of violence in the first hour or so, but after that it is mainly a dogged search for clues by the police and reporters at the San Francisco Chronicle. Most of the movie's most intense and exciting moments come from the search instead of watching the Zodiac Killer do his dirty work, anyway.
2 Days in Paris (2007): I've been a Julie Delpy fan ever since seeing her in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, and her hand is all over the place in this -- she wrote, directed, produced, starred in, edited and even wrote the music for the movie. Overall, it's pretty solid; it's a funny look at two highly neurotic people whose relationship is going to shambles during a vacation that was supposed to save their relationship. One of the most fun parts, for me, is listening to Delpy switch between French and English; French is her native language, but her English has such a strange rhythm to it, and I enjoy hearing her speak it. Makes me wish I had a way of speaking more interesting than "deadpan."
His Girl Friday (1940): Was there ever a movie star smoother than Cary Grant? I say no. He played such a wide variety of characters, but he was always so slick and confident when he played them. Only a Cary Grant character could be smooth enough to get a strong-willed person like Rosalind Russell's character, Hildy, to come out of retirement as a news reporter. It's very entertaining watching them butt heads; Grant is such a hilariously cynical reporter, and it's very funny watching Russell try in vain to suppress her instincts as a reporter. I feel kind of bad for the guy she is supposed to marry, because terrible things happen to him the whole movie, but he is pretty boring, so Grant > him, no matter what. Such is the way of movie logic.
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949): This is the kind of comedy only the English could pull off. Dennis Price's character is a total bastard through the entire movie, but he is a hilarious bastard; he flaunts traditional morality quite readily (you kind of have to if you're going to murder your way into being a duke), and he has a pithy comment ready for just about every situation. Equally great is Alec Guinness, who plays the eight family members who stand in the way of Price ascending to dukedom. Each character is a unique, funny creation -- my favorite is either the hardcore suffragette or the photographer who likes to duck into the darkroom for a few drinks so that he can get away from his teetotaler wife for a few moments. This is an absolute must if you enjoy dark comedies.
Blow-Up (1966): Really strange art house movie about a fashion photographer who thinks he sees evidence of a murder in photos he has taken. It isn't really about the murder, though; it's more about the boredom and emptiness he feels while engaging in such soulless work. The murder represents the first real challenge he's had as a photographer, and it gives his life a real jolt. This movie is just as famous, however, for being a portrait of British popular culture at the time (if you've seen the first Austin Powers movie, a lot of things it parodies is the type of stuff you'd seen in Blow-Up). I like it for what it tries to accomplish, but if you like to stick to traditional narrative, then this would probably frustrate you a great deal lol.
La Vie en Rose (2007): Well, now I see why Marion Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress! She is pretty friggin' amazing, playing legendary French singer Edith Piaf from her teenage years all the way to her dying days. Even if Cotillard weren't so fantastic, though, this would be worth watching because, like I'm Not There, it messes with the traditional biopic formula a great deal. Piaf's life is presented in a nonlinear format; it can be a bit confusing at times, but it's cool to piece together the type of person she was through the random events in her life. And, of course, the soundtrack is wonderful.
It Happened One Night (1934): Been waiting a long time to see this, and it definitely does not disappoint. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert have fantastic chemistry; I like the quick wit of Gable's character, and I love how Colbert's character puts on airs as a front but becomes so childlike when she's excited about something. The hitchhiking scene is probably the most famous from the movie (partly because it's hilarious, and partly because, due to the Hays Code, people wouldn't see something quite that bold in an American movie for a long time), but my favorite is when Gable and Colbert pretend to be an arguing Southern couple so that the police get off their backs. "QUIT BAWLING! QUIT BAWLING!" Hahaha. So damn funny. If you haven't seen this classic, then don't be a chump like me and wait a bajillion years to watch it -- get it now.
On the queue for this week: Mean Streets (1973), A Very Long Engagement (2004), Dirty Pretty Things (2002) and Venus Beauty Institute (1999)
Movie Count: 125 (Live Free or Die Hard, Time Bandits, The Hustler, Black Dragon (Miracles), Hollywoodland, Blood Diamond, Animal Crackers, Marie Antoinette, Inside Man, The Fountain, Tombstone, Jurassic Park (Rifftrax), No Country for Old Men, Juno, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Rifftrax), There Will Be Blood, Rize, Born Into Brothels, Eastern Promises, Gone Baby Gone, Hard Candy, The Matrix Reloaded (Rifftrax), Hot Fuzz, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, Phone Booth, The Dark Knight, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Predator, Ratatouille, Renaissance, Pretty in Pink, Scanners, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, Stop Making Sense, The Killing, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rifftrax), Voices of a Distant Star, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Amadeus, Touch of Evil, Paths of Glory, Gangs of New York, Five Easy Pieces, Perfect Blue, Novocaine, A Fish Called Wanda, A Hard Day's Night, Arsenic and Old Lace, Out of the Past, The Lady from Shanghai, The Wild Bunch, The Little Shop of Horrors (1960), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Bringing Up Baby, Pleasantville, Citizen Kane, They Live, The Terminator, The Adolescence of Utena, The Castle of Cagliostro, The Professional, High Plains Drifter, In the Heat of the Night, Michael Clayton, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Munich, Traffic, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bug, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Maltese Falcon, Rashomon, Big Trouble in Little China, Sleeper, Badlands, Johnny Guitar, Mildred Pierce, Shadow of a Doubt, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, Hard Boiled, Targets, Away from Her, Hud, The Hidden Fortress, Seven Samurai, He Was a Quiet Man, Gilda, Borat, Ikiru, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The Boxer, Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, The 39 Steps, The Philadelphia Story, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Adam's Rib, Throne of Blood, Ran, Peeping Tom, Clueless, Shadow Magic, 5 Centimeters Per Second, Children of Men, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Volver, Atonement, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Iron Man, Dial M for Murder, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Emperor and the Assassin, WALL-E, Casino Royale, I'm Not There, Zodiac, 2 Days in Paris, His Girl Friday, Kind Hearts and Coronets, Blow-Up, La Vie en Rose, It Happened One Night)
